Non-standard automation is usually bought to solve one problem, not to buy a machine. Because the equipment is new, a drawing alone cannot show whether it will run repeatably. PowerDe's engineering services describe exactly this situation: customized configurations, non-standard equipment, and equipment customization delivered against a customer requirement. The difference between a machine that ships and a line that runs is usually decided before the metal is cut. A working prototype is the cheapest place to find that out.
Below is how we use a prototype to test the requirements themselves, before the production equipment is released for manufacture.
Start from the requirement that could fail the project
Every non-standard project has one or two process steps that carry the risk. Everything else is engineering that has been done many times. The prototype does not need to reproduce the whole line; it needs to reproduce the risky step under realistic conditions. In film and display work, for example, the risky step is often alignment and bonding rather than transport, which is why our semiconductor process equipment range is built around vacuum lamination, bonding, and debubbling stations that can be tested individually.
Prototype at the level that answers the question
Three questions are typically answered by three different levels of prototype:
- Feasibility: does the process work at all on your material? A single station, often manually loaded, is enough.
- Process repeatability: does it work the same way one hundred times? This is where a station is tested against your incoming variability, not an ideal sample.
- Integration: can the station hand the part to the next station without damaging alignment or triggering a fault? This needs the transfer and the signal interface, not just the process.
Choosing the right level avoids paying for a full prototype when only a single station is in doubt, and avoids a surprise later when the process works but the handoff does not.
Write the requirement as a measurable number
Requirements written as adjectives cannot be validated. "High precision" becomes testable when it is stated as a tolerance, a measurement method, and a pass rate. The published specifications on our product pages are written this way, and are a useful reference for how a requirement should read: the 7-layer membrane electrode hot press bonding machine page states a fitting error of 0.2 mm or less, and the medium-sized automatic laminating machine page describes CCD alignment and roller bonding for 10 to 32 inch products. Each of those can be measured on a prototype run.
Do the same for your own line: cycle time stated as parts per hour with what is included in the cycle, uptime stated with a definition of an unplanned stop, and quality stated as measured deviation on your parts.
Test with your materials, at your variability
A prototype run on ideal samples proves very little. Non-standard equipment has no proven history, so the variability of the incoming parts is often the dominant unknown. Run the prototype across the full spread you actually receive: thickness range, flatness, coating variation, dimensional tolerance. The result tells you whether the equipment must compensate for that spread, or whether your incoming inspection must tighten first. That decision changes the machine design, and it is far cheaper to change on a prototype.
Record what fails, not only what works
The output of a prototype phase should be a defect list with a cause and an owner for each item: jamming at transfer, misalignment after a ramp, a material that outgasses under heat, a fixture that marks the part. Fixing these in the prototype is an engineering change. Fixing them after delivery is a retrofit, and retrofits on non-standard machines frequently affect other stations. A written defect list also becomes the basis of the acceptance test for the production machine, since the items that failed in the prototype are the items that must be demonstrated before shipment.
Use the prototype result to fix the acceptance criteria
Once the prototype has been measured, the production equipment specification can be written from data instead of assumptions: the tolerance that was achieved, the cycle time that was sustained, and the reject rate that was observed. Where the prototype fell short, the specification records what must be improved and which side of the boundary owns the fix.
For projects that begin this way, our automated production line solutions and solutions pages describe how customized lines are specified and built. If you have a process step you are not yet sure can be automated, send the part, the target cycle time, and the tolerance you need through the contact page, and we will confirm which prototype is needed to prove it.
