Any information on companies similar to Inventables and Matter that provide access to new materials? Looking to update my internal database for processes and materials. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Our focus is on consulting, though. We don’t provide an open or subscription based material database/library. If this is what you’re looking for, other options include Materia, Materio and MaterialConnexion.
Actually Matter is a publication by Material Connexion. Thanks for the other sites however. Keep them coming.
If you are working at a design firm or corp design center, usually you can invite larger vendors and share their new manufacturing process and methods to a team. Big contract manufacturers can be very knowledgeable about lots of different factories and manufacturing techniques. Sometimes they can just be in the area and dropping in for a conversation is not a big deal at all. Vendors, especially in working in some of the very competitive product groups like laptops or mobile phones can be especially helpful to learn about new processes that are up and coming
Any examples of larger vendors to invite? Wondering if you wouldnt mind elaborating on that aspect of it. How do you decide which vendor to bring in, do they have to be local, no cost to the company right? Other than time I assume to review material types.
For example, in the last couple months we’ve had AllJack, aTaiwanese prototyper, in who shared some new low volume techniques, Nissha came by and shared IMD processes, Shin-Etsu came by to show off new buttons ranging from mobile phones to automotive. All of the vendors showed off at least one technique that was new to me.
Usually it happens when a project specifically needs investigation into certain materials or techniques, giving them some incentive to come in and pitch their wares. Sometimes they’ll come in without a project, just because it could be in their best interests to share their capabilities. Other times they’ll be doing multi company visits in an area, so adding another consultancy to visit wasn’t a big deal. For the one’s above, I don’t believe they were local (though they have European offices)… It might be tougher to get them to visit a university or company that would never use their factories though