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Engineering: Product development with project management and quality assurance
Mechatronic series product development - this is where we are at home.
Whether mechanical design and simulation, electronic hardware design, software engineering and testing: we master the complexity of the mechatronic sub-disciplines and their interaction.
We are not only creative freethinkers in development, prototyping and planning, but also have many years of experience in testing and industrializing the products we develop. In addition to engineering, we have also taken on the supply chain management, assembly and quality assurance for many of these products in our internal assembly department.
We attach great importance to the professional development of our employees to remain at the cutting edge of technology at all times. We have mastered the mechatronic complexity of technology and the consideration of aspects relevant to series production already in the concept phase. The technical disciplines and non-technical areas such as purchasing and production work hand in hand in a coordinated manner - often supported by our partners in the sister companies of the Swiss Factory Group.
Our expertise extends across various industrial sectors, which makes us a versatile partner. But of course we are not just generalists - we are also proven experts in various specialist areas. We operate at the highest level in the field of electrical drive technology and technical optics. We are also the top address in Switzerland for coffee machines, in the field of HMIs, displays and switches and in the design of tool-based plastic components. In all these disciplines, we are the ideal development partner for your special projects.
Mechanics
Precise mechanical designs and innovative constructions with common CAD tools and focus on demanding plastic applications
Electronics
Customised electronics design and development with a focus on high quality up to series production readiness
Software
Innovative embedded solutions for bare-metal software, drive technology and IoT with seamless full-stack connectivity to the cloud
Test & Technology
Function and service life tests, optical analyses, determination of motor characteristics,
vibration and shock tests or climatic chamber - extensive possibilities in the in-house laboratory.
Simulation & Calculation
Optics and beam path, temperature behaviour, structural mechanics or rheology - our simulations provide valuable insights before expensive prototype realisation
Project Management Office
Our senior project managers are the central point of contact and coordination for complex system developments. They take over communication with the customer, plan the projects and ensure the successful joint implementation of the project.
In addition to the usual tasks such as adhering to the budget, delivery objects and schedule, our project managers ensure the coordination of the individual technical and non-technical disciplines and ensure the efficient implementation of our product development process. This ensures that the right measures are implemented at the right time in the project.
The focus here is on customer requirements. Working under unclear specifications or reacting agilely to changing requirements is anything but foreign to us.
Of course, we also support our customers with the certification of products in accordance with the required directives, be it CE, EMC, Machinery Directive, ATEX, or MDR - our project managers have proven experience in all of these fields and know how to lead corresponding projects to success.
Ideas lead to optimal products for your application
Every customer has specific requirements, that's why we take a holistic view of your product development right from the start. In doing so, we rely on different creativity techniques to explore a wide range of solutions and achieve the best possible result for you. Our extensively equipped trial and test laboratory supports your project throughout the entire development process.
Through our Product Engineering Process (PEP), you get a customised product development where every milestone and gate is clearly defined and aligned with our experience. Our employees from different functional areas work in parallel on a multitude of activities to achieve a goal-oriented result quickly and agilely. Our approach is independent of industry and technology to offer you an optimal solution for your application.
The combination of electronics, mechanics and software, coupled with many years of expert knowledge in mechatronics, results in innovative complete solutions and sub-projects.
We rely on close cooperation between development, design, quality assurance as well as production. Reliable support according to your specifications, comprehensive technical support, and a high level of process reliability are our focus. This results in efficient and effective industrialisation of high quality and a short "time-to-market".
ISO 9001 & ISO 13485 certifications support the entire process.
Mechanical design & simulation
Our mechanical engineers each have several years of experience and specializations in their field. Many of them have a Master of Science in Engineering, which underlines their expertise in various specializations. Designing in all common CAD and PDM systems is a matter of course for us. You can be sure that we have the right qualified person for your mechanical engineering needs.
FEM simulations accompany our development steps as required: filling simulations for tool-bound plastic components, structural mechanical calculations, simulation of optical systems and lighting, thermal calculations, and flow simulations are all part of our repertoire, which we can draw on for your project.
Of course, we not only support you in the design and material selection for your components, but also accompany your development through to series production. This includes the selection of the most suitable manufacturing process, the creation of high-quality production drawings and the selection of independent manufacturing suppliers.
During the development phase, we procure and assemble your prototypes, which we put through their paces in our in-house test laboratory.
>e.g. SolidWorks, Solid Edge, NX, Catia, Creo, Autodesk Moldflow, Ansys, Speos.
Electronics hardware development
Outstanding specialists for the development of PCBs are hard to find - we have them.
We have broad expertise in hardware development. Creating schematics, laying out the PCBs, procuring them, testing the hardware and the software implemented on it and carrying out EMC tests: these are the daily core tasks of our electronics developers. We work with all common tools such as Altium, OrCAD, EAGLE Pulsonix, Matlab Simulink, Octave and LabVIEW.
Over the years, we have been able to build up a wealth of experience from various applications, which we draw on in our projects: Various motor control systems with output stages up to an output of several kilowatts, systems with wireless communication via WLAN and Bluetooth, control of lighting systems, realization of displays and input panels as well as power management for battery-operated devices are just a few examples of thematic focuses that we have mastered.
Software engineering
Software engineers are just as hard to find as electronics developers - we have them and deploy them in future-oriented areas such as energy, mobility, information technology and healthcare.
The focus of our software developers is very close to the hardware. We are strong in creating "embedded software" in direct interaction with hardware development. Consequently, we have also developed the corresponding software for the hardware development projects: Motor control and general sensor signal processing, wireless communication and fieldbus connections as well as control of displays and lighting systems.
We have realized medical products and are certified according to 13485. We have also been able to prove that we can develop systems with functional safety. Our developers are therefore used to commenting and documenting their software accordingly. You can rely on us to provide appropriate version management with professional change management. You will therefore benefit even if your formal requirements are lower than in the area of MDR or FuSi.
Test and technology laboratory
We have our own extensive infrastructure for tests and simulations. In our technology laboratory, we carry out standard tests and perform material analyses, vibration tests, service life tests, protection class tests and environmental simulations.
The primary aim of our laboratory is to provide fast, flexible and high-quality support for product development in the respective process phases. Of course, you can also use the laboratory without having placed an order for a complete development. With every order, you will receive a detailed test report, suggestions for improvement if necessary and additional information about our service - not just a schematic F report. We see ourselves as a partner and problem solver in the laboratory. Our focus is not least on the latest findings from research and development in order to promote innovative solutions.
We can carry out the following tests and inspections in-house:
MECHANICAL FORCES
- Documentation of force-displacement characteristics
- Determination of material parameters
- Haptics and switching points of operating elements
- Synchronous video recording for destructive tests
VIBRATION
- Recognition of functional weak points
- Behavior at critical resonance frequencies
- Proof of product quality
- Compliance with the relevant standards
HIGH-SPEED RECORDINGS
- Documentation of fast, even one-off movements
- Meaningful, impressive videos
- 2D movement analysis with results in diagram form
- Synergies through combination with other tests
ENVIRONMENTAL SIMULATION
- Temperature and climate tests
- Accelerated ageing
- Submersion | Strong water jets
- High pressure steam jet
LUMINANCE MEASUREMENTS
- Luminance measurements on flat light sources
- Luminance measuring chamber
- Large dynamic measuring range
- Numerous evaluation and visualization options
ACOUSTIC AND FREQUENCY ANALYSIS
- Recording of sounds
- Creation of acoustic signatures
- Frequency analysis
- Standard measurements of sound levels
DRIVE TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY
- Application-specific service life measurements and tests
- Speed and torque measurements
- Determination of the efficiency of the control unit, motor and gearbox or the complete drive train
- Analysis of positioning accuracy
- Detailed analyses of application-specific problems
- Accompanying tests for conformity tests (UL, CE)
ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY
- Pre-compliance measurements
- Field and conducted measurements of devices and motors
- Optimization of EMC behaviour (online debugging)
- Facilitation of certification for finished products
OPTICAL EXAMINATIONS
- Continuous magnification
- Measurement of distances, angles and radii
- Image post-processing
- Increasing the depth of field by means of image synthesis
SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY (REM)
- Sculptural, detailed images
- Visualization of surfaces on the smallest scales
- Assessment of morphological properties
- Examination of impurities, e.g. particles
X-RAY SPECTROSCOPY (EDX)
- Quantitative element analysis (dots, lines)
- Qualitative element distributions
- Element detection from carbon
- Visualized and numerical results
CROSS-SECTION METHOD
- Documentation of the geometric condition
- Tolerance and damage analyses
- Functional tests
- Product presentations for marketing purposes
If you do not find what you are looking for, we can cover further requests via our proven partner network.
Our special areas & topics
Drive technology & motion control
When it comes to electrical drive technology, no one can fool us so quickly. We are guaranteed to find the optimum solution for your drive technology problem.
If suitable for your application, we use standard products - even outside of our own Drive Technology BU catalogs. However, if you prefer a customer-specific solution for functional, installation space or cost reasons, we can provide you with everything from a single source:
- Design and simulation of the entire drivetrain
- Selection of the right motor and gearbox type
- Customized gearbox design
- Optimized PCB design in terms of functionality, costs and installation space
- Complete algorithms for motor control and signal processing
- Solutions for communication with the customer system
- Battery management and fail-safe solutions
- Solutions for functional safety
- GUI
Technical optics
Whether lighting solutions for search or functional lighting or more complex optical systems with lasers, lenses and prisms - Antrimon can offer a highly attractive range of services.
We use our SPEOS simulation tool to design optical systems and simulate their behavior. The design engineers integrate the solutions into the respective overall system architecture and build corresponding prototypes. Our employees in electronics and software ensure optimum control and commissioning of test devices. Finally, our test laboratory ensures a comparison of simulation and result with appropriate luminance measurements, with subsequent adjustments if necessary.
At your request, we are also able to procure and assemble the optical assemblies for you for series production and ensure that the required quality is achieved.
Development of coffee machines
We have been active in the development of coffee machines for many years. Our mechanical engineering and test laboratory staff in particular are proven experts in this field.
We have an extensive amount of experience in the design and construction of fluid systems, brewing units and grinders as well as associated components such as motors and valves. We also work extensively in the areas of lighting and illumination as well as human-machine interfaces. We have even developed complete fully automatic machines on behalf of our customers and have the relevant expertise for future projects.
Our experience in testing coffee machines is at least as broad. Over the years, we have built up and expanded our expertise in the areas of coffee quality (crema, coffee, milk foam, etc.) and component testing (brewing units, grinders, punches, etc.). Of course, we are also ideally positioned for tests for electrical safety, pressure and temperature safety and food conformity. Our test laboratory has the appropriate equipment on site and works with the optimum methods in each case.
When it comes to coffee, we have everything you could wish for!
Human-machine interfaces (HMIs)
HMIs are playing an increasingly important role in both industrial and private applications. The most important elements of HMIs are part of our core expertise: we have had the pleasure of realizing switches, buttons, knobs, displays and lighting on numerous occasions.
We know the most important features of HMIs: visual appearance, haptic feel and, last but not least, acoustic behavior determine the quality of an HMI. We know which methods and tools can be used to generate which behavior and are also able to quantify and validate this behavior in the laboratory using force-displacement measurements, luminance measurements or acoustic measurements.
We develop and program the signal-processing electronics in-house, as well as the connection of the HMI to the customer system, e.g. via fieldbus.
Tool-compatible design of plastic parts
We know our way around plastic! We know how plastic parts need to be designed so that they not only fulfill their actual function, but also so that the tool required for this can be realized cost-effectively and without inefficient grinding. As a rule, we carry out moldflow simulations to ensure good, high-quality manufacturability - before costs are incurred in tool production.
Of course, our work does not end with the design - we also know when and with which method functional samples and prototypes can be optimally realized and tested. And finally, we support you at the tool manufacturer until you have successfully implemented your parts in your product.
Jürgen Noack
Engineering
