Mechatronics

Simplexity Focuses on Mechatronics for the Development of Mid-to-High Volume Products

For products with a low volume and a high component cost (top left of the diagram above), designers typically need to rely on motion system resellers and integrators to specify and integrate commercial, off-the-shelf components into a custom industrial solution. At the bottom left of the diagram is the hobbyist or maker market, where people strive to make low volume products with low cost components like Arduino or Raspberry Pi. The top right of the diagram shows custom industrial products, like cars and construction equipment that use higher cost motion components.

The bottom right of the diagram shows the types of products that are considered embedded motion products. Since product volumes are higher, relying on the same motion system components and integrators as the top left of the diagram will yield products that are not cost competitive. In this space, highly experienced mechatronic engineers are vital. Without the cross-disciplinary skillset that mechatronic engineers provide, motion systems are typically overdesigned in each individual design subsystem. With a true cross-disciplinary team, new tradeoffs become available which can yield an overall better design.

Historically, Simplexity has found that teams without a dedicated mechatronics system engineer typically significantly overdesign, adding as much 2x the required cost to the system.  Since many of our engineers have decades of experience designing HP’s high volume ink-jet printers, they have learned the secrets of designing motion systems with best-in-class cost to performance ratios. With a systems approach and sufficient characterization, design margin can be balanced across the system components so that no component is overdesigned. That optimization in margin can yield a huge reduction in total cost for higher production volume.