Component Search Engines: From Conception to Consumption

Consumer goods are an inseparable part of our everyday lives. They span such a broad range of items, from the coffee machine that we use in the mornings to the cars we drive. However, we rarely stop to consider the complex route these goods take to reach their final form. For example, a seemingly insignificant appliance like the coffee machine is made of over 45 parts, ranging from foamer heads to waste drawers. Cars are infinitely more complex, with 30,000 parts in total. The average consumer would never be aware of the intricate design, manufacturing, and distribution process that both of these goods went through to reach their possession.  

How Component Parts are Designed

Countless hours are spent by industrial designers and engineers developing and perfecting these component parts. It takes a lot of precision and expertise to coordinate the seamless integration of hundreds of parts. Finding the appropriate parts is almost as difficult as the design, though. Engineers use a variety of techniques that range in effectiveness. There are time consuming DIY projects where the engineers redraw the parts made by supplier manufacturers. Some engineers resort to using crowdsourced designs from sites such as GrabCAD, which bears the risk of content being user generated and too generic. 

The best method involves using component search engines, such as 3DFindIt, to provide the most efficiency in the part design search. These platforms simplify the search process by providing an extensive catalog of brands and products with approved product data certified by manufacturers. This method involves instant turnaround and revision timelines, which can significantly cut down the hours that design engineers spend per day looking for components. In total, up to 625 hours and $70,000 can be saved per engineer, which demonstrates some pretty significant cost savings for companies. Most of the parts available for search include engineering, electrical, electronic, and architectural components. 

Conclusion

All consumer items, no matter how sophisticated or simple, are ultimately the result of labor-intensive design procedures and selective component sourcing. This process used to be extremely time intensive and painstaking, but component search engines have completely changed this environment. They are able to provide engineers with a quick and easy way to find standardized parts, all with typing in a few key words. By embracing this method, engineers will no longer have to spend hours chasing down manufacturers for the right design pieces. This invention will help speed along the journey of the product creating process from conception to consumption.