From our office near Oxford, Crucible has developed a number of innovative technical solutions for our clients, including new manufacturing techniques to meet specific needs.
Our technical solutions focus on three main areas:
Design from the inside out
Our designers are as passionate about making things work as they are about making them look good. We always prefer to design from the ‘inside out’ – meaning that we begin with the internal parts of the product, ensure that it is going to work, and then explore the creative opportunities for external appearance. This approach simply means that you don’t need to choose between something that looks good and and something that works. Obvious, really.
Engineering solutions
We have been involved in many engineering development teams and are named on several patents. The product design perspective on engineering development is to ask ‘why not?’ and ‘what if?’ questions which often spark new thoughts and open up commercial opportunities. We have been particularly active in the specialist instrument markets, and have worked with university development teams as well as corporate innovation groups and individual inventors.
Manufacturing solutions
The range of production processes, materials, locations and regulations that manufacturers need to consider is becoming more and more complex – but also exciting. Getting the right balance of process, location and material can make a huge difference to your bottom line. Crucible keeps up to date with processes, particularly in the area of ‘Rapid Manufacture’ and can advise you on the correct approach for your particular product. We are particularly experienced in the areas of ‘low volume, high value’ manufacture typified by the medical and scientific instruments industries, and have developed a large number of products in this sector that use innovative production processes.