GW Mechanical
GW Mechanical consultancy was established only in 2019, but undoubtedly is one of the best in Cambridge. Its founder, Gareth Weeks, a mechanical design engineer with over 25 years of experience in telecoms, biotech, and consumer products, is well known in the professional technology circles as the go-to man. We spoke to some of his clients and the main reasons for choosing GW Mechanical are – a personal service that cannot be matched by any of the larger consultancies, highly competitive rates thanks to low overheads, and a solid professional reputation. GW can help you develop your product from the initial sketch all the way to production.
Cambridge Industrial Design
Cambridge Industrial Design is another great small consultancy that is based just outside Cambridge. This company has been around for many years and its current owner, Alex Jones, has over 20 years of experience in both an industrial and consultancy environment. Alex has contributed to the success of a wide range of award winning products including lighting for Philips and Osram, test equipment for Fluke and PA speakers for Fender. The company offers a wide range of product development services including Industrial Design, Product engineering and Production Sourcing.
eg technology
A larger consultancy with around 50 employees, eg technology (www.egtechnology.co.uk) is based in a quiet Stow-cum-Quy village, just East of Cambridge. This quote from their website sums up everything you need to know about them: “The breadth and depth of experience at eg is outstanding and it’s all under one roof. We excel in seamlessly connecting our disciplines of industrial design, mechanical, software and electronics engineering.” The company seems to be particularly strong in the medical field.
DesignEdge
Another small design consultancy also located in Stow-cum-Quy is called DesignEdge (www.designedge.co.uk). It is run by two experienced engineers. DesignEdge was established in 1992 and has a proven track record for award-winning and commercially successful product development. DesignEdge aims to combine innovation and styling excellence to add value and reduce assembly, materials and part costs. Similarly to eg technology, DesignEdge works with many medical companies, but they also design various other products, such as cameras, educational robots, and VR gear.
Cambridge Design Technology
Cambridge-based Cambridge Design Technology’s (www.cambridge-dt.com) team consists of 3 mechanical and 1 industrial designers. The company offers a strong technology design and development experience, with skills across a broad range of sectors, including medical, scientific, industrial, consumer and telecommunication companies.
Cambridge Design Partnership
Cambridge Design Partnership (www.cambridge-design.com) is the largest company on our list with over 100 employees in Cambridge and a further 60 or so elsewhere in the UK and abroad. The company has been established for over 20 years and boasts over 1,000 product development assignments for businesses around the world. The company’s ability to provide holistic innovation teams across consumer research, brand strategy, design, scientific research, engineering development and manufacturing is its main strength.
Creative Design ID
Another small player, Creative Design ID company (http://www.creactive-id.uk), over the years has also been rewarded by numerous national and international design awards including Design Council Awards, iF Design Awards, Design Week Awards, IBO Gold Awards and a Queen’s Award. The company has extensive experience in the range of sectors including consumer, medical, laboratory and telecoms.
Coalesce
Coalese (www.coalesce.co.uk) employs around 10 engineers, who, according to their website, have over 150 years of Combination Product development experience. Additionally, the company employs quality and regulatory experts. The company specialises in Drug Delivery Device Development. Coalese’s Quality Management System is certified by BSI to ISO13485 but has been designed to also comply with USA FDA 21 CFR 820 Quality System Regulation.
Marble Product Design
Located just outside of Cambridge, in Great Shelford, Marble Product Design (www.marbleproductdesign) is another consultancy with less than 10 employees. This is another ISO (ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 13485:2016) certified business serving a range of clients starting from small local start-ups to ‘Big Pharma’ in the EU and USA.
