Articles Special Topics

First Principles Part Three
If you’ve been following along, you know that there are some things called First Principles. These are laws of nature, just like the familiar law of gravity, but they govern the way that heat and other forms of energy work in our universe. If you’ve been following along you... Read More...
Let’s talk about First Principles
You’re excited about your idea for a new product! Now you want to run it through some quick screens to make sure it’s at least not violating any First Principles before you move on to the Prototyping and Testing phases. Don’t know what any of these things are?  You... Read More...
First Principles – First Law
You’ve got a great idea for a new product.  You’ve sketched out designs. You’ve talked to potential customers and people are SUPER excited about buying it.  All that’s left is to make it, right? Not so fast.  If you read our recent series on design thinking you know that... Read More...
A New Process: Homemade Paint Mask!
If you’ve been following along with the story of the Process Cat Desk Buddy, you know that we went from cartoon to a 3D figure modelled in software, to a 3D-printed prototype, to a resin-casted figurine.  That’s pretty cool in itself. Now for the next step we developed a... Read More...
Resin Casting the Process Cat Desk Buddy!
A Manufacturing Case Study This is a case study for the process of moving from the design phase of a manufacturing project, through the prototyping and on to the small-scale production method known as resin casting. If you read part 1 of the case study you know that I... Read More...
Going Over A Manufacturing Case Study
This week we present a small-scale manufacturing case study: the making of a Process Cat figurine! (Which I call my Desk Buddy.)   Now comes the designer I was lucky to happen to meet Jaime Noguchi, the designer for Morlock Entreprises, at a comics convention.  A few months later I... Read More...
What’s New in Manufacturing 2019: MD&M East 2019
4 learnings from MD&M East 2019 This past week I attended MD&M East 2019, one of the largest manufacturing conventions in the northeast. Here are 4 things I learned: 1) The technology surrounding 3D Printing is improving Manufacturing 2019! First off, let’s just acknowledge that 3D Printing is a... Read More...

THE ZATTATAT CAST:

Meet the characters with the skills & Zattatudes who can help engineer your manufacturing success

Princess Capybara

Age: 35

Background: Biotech

Current Gig: Mold-Making

Zattatude: Seeks to geek out with the top tech she knows best

Gary

Age: 44

Background: Accounting

Current Gig: Baking

Zattatude: Lives to figure out how everything in life adds up

Process Cat

Age: Timeless

Background: Manufacturing

Current Gig: Helping People

Zattatude: Loves to teach others how to scale up their businesses

Rhonda

Age: 53

Background: Nursing

Current Gig: Woodworking

Zattatude: Celebrates ditching her bureaucratic hospital job for her hands-on craft business