Questions
The things buyers ask first.
Answered plainly, including the ones where the answer is no.
Commercial
- Who owns the intellectual property in the design?
- You do. On a design-and-build engagement the intellectual property in the resulting product is the customer's. We are being paid to do the engineering, not to retain it — a design you cannot take elsewhere is not really yours, and buyers are right to check.
- Will you sign a non-disclosure agreement?
- Yes. We sign NDAs as a matter of course, before technical discussion where that is what you need. Confidentiality runs in both directions and we expect it.
- Will you name us as a customer?
- Not unless you tell us in writing that we may. Every project on our Work page is anonymised by default. A device brand's advantage is that the market believes the product is theirs, and we are not going to trade that for a logo on our website.
- What is your minimum order quantity?
- We do not publish one. Small batches are most of what we do, and a prototype run of a handful of units is normal here. Tell us the volume you have in mind and we will tell you plainly whether it suits us.
- Is the engineering cost paid up front, or built into the unit price?
- Either, and we will tell you which we think fits your project rather than hiding it inside a number. Design, tooling and test development are real cost: they are paid for up front as non-recurring engineering, or recovered across units where the volume is committed enough to carry them. We quote the two separately so you can see what you are paying for, and what changes if the volume does.
Regulatory
- Do you hold ISO 13485, ISO 9001 or a device manufacturing licence?
- No. We hold no certifications today and we are not going to imply otherwise. What we hold is the engineering. If your quality process requires a certified supplier, say so at the start and we will tell you honestly whether we can meet it.
- Who holds the device registration?
- You do. We are a design and manufacturing partner, not the legal manufacturer of record. The licence, the market authorisation and the technical file remain with you, and we build to the file you own, handing over design documentation and test records to support it.
- What about approvals for drones?
- The same division applies. We design and build the aircraft; airspace approvals and operator registration sit with the party flying and selling them.
Working together
- Why are there no product photographs on this site?
- Because the products are our customers' products. Photographing a finished unit and publishing it would show a device that belongs to somebody else, usually before they are ready to show it themselves. It is the same reason the projects on our Work page are anonymised. If you want to see what we build, come to the bench and we will show you units in person.
- Can you manufacture a design we already have?
- Yes. That is a build-to-print engagement: you arrive with a finished design and we manufacture and test it. We will review the design first and tell you if we think something will cause trouble in production.
- What do you do in-house, and what do you subcontract?
- Circuit and firmware design, power conversion, mechanical design, assembly, functional test and build are ours. Bare boards and volume PCB assembly are placed with subcontractors we work with regularly. Our Capabilities page lists this discipline by discipline, including what we do not do at all.
- Do you only work on medical devices?
- No. Electrosurgical generators are the line we are best known for, but the same bench builds power transformers, drones, consumer products such as power meters, and control and test electronics.
- How does an engagement start?
- Send us the requirement — a specification, a competitor's datasheet, or a paragraph describing what the device has to do. We reply with a straight answer on whether it suits us, and if it does we scope it properly before quoting. We would rather lose an enquiry in week one than in month six.
Something here you need in writing?
Ask before you send anything confidential. We would rather put the agreement in place first.