Oplossing Design

Materials selection is the foundation of a successful product design.

Of course, we typically think of this in terms of finding the right material properties to meet performance and reliability goals, colors and finishes available, cost, and lead-times & minimum order quantities. But to successfully deliver a product, these requirements also need to be communicated to both the materials suppliers and the final assembly factory (which often don’t use the same vocabulary, for soft goods), tested at reasonable frequencies, and to testing specs that make sense for the end use.

Oplossing Design helps design teams select materials, write spec sheets, and design testing plans that balance product requirements with operational needs. 

Services that we provide for materials development projects:

• Translation of product requirements to materials requirements, material selection
• Yarn and textile physics – we have expertise in fields like textile acoustics, optical transmission or occlusion, and long-term wear
• Write materials specifications, either for sourcing or for production
• Test plan development for product reliability and manufacturing quality
• Partner assessment for materials sourcing, production, finishing, conversion, and assembly
• Cost assessment
• Design for sustainability and longevity feedback

Case study:

woven specification development

A materials development project could look like our collaboration with Ocean-based Climate Solutions: They had a swatch of fabric that was working for prototypes but far too expensive. They came to us to describe and quantify the textile’s critical properties, in order to find a more cost-competitive version. We analyzed the swatch, provided a draft specification sheet that they could use to get quotations from weaving mills, and made introductions to potential mills. 

A larger scope project could involve partnering with Industrial Design at the concept stage and co-developing custom knit or woven textiles, as Oplossing’s principal engineer, Laura, has done with Google Nest, Verily, and Fitbit.

Whether you need our textile engineering expertise to open the conversation or want a more involved engagement for materials development, we have years of experience analyzing textiles & writing specifications, creating or customizing textiles, as well as a wide network of partners and mill contacts to draw on to meet your design and business needs.