Design. Validate. Scale. is a five-part fireside chat series from Hawk Ridge Systems and A3D Manufacturing on how a product moves from concept to production. In Episode 3, Validating Before You Scale, host David Whitten, account manager at Hawk Ridge Systems, sits down with Michael Dymond, product manager at A3D Manufacturing, to talk about the prototyping step most teams treat like a finish line: the first print arrived, it looks right, and the temptation is to call the job done.
When a Hawk Ridge Systems customer brings A3D that first good-looking part, Dymond does not treat it as proof. He treats it as a snapshot.
“A prototype in and of itself is a snapshot of what that technology was doing that day under its set of circumstances.”
— Michael Dymond
Humidity, temperature, who post-processed it, toolpathing — all of that is in the part. Teams usually open the calipers when something fails. He wants the opposite habit.
Prove the Process, Not Just the Part
The unintuitive case is the one that burns schedules, and it is Dymond’s. The printer had a “minus day,” so the part slides together. The following week you make 25 on a “plus day,” and nothing fits the way it should. You did not validate a production method. You validated one good day.
“Break out the calipers when something does fit.”
— Michael Dymond
Whitten’s rule of thumb for the episode lands right after that point: prove the process, not just the part. Later, Dymond puts the same idea another way — figure out the bell curve under the process, not only the one hero sample on the table.
Cosmetic Quantity One Does Not Scale
You can get a quantity-one part to look, behave, and serve like a production unit — cosmetic models with days of finishing, final color, weights in the right places, even minimum viable function. You cannot keep the same finishing tech sanding and painting forever once throughput rises. Blood, sweat, and sanding into quantity one does not survive dozens, hundreds, or thousands.
The intent of the prototype should teach you what you need and set you up as quantity climbs. Between quantity one and injection-mold tooling for tens of thousands, there is runway. Bridge that gap with additive, urethane casting, or compression molding — and expect variability. Validate the process so you can accommodate or tweak for it, instead of assuming the hero sample will repeat.
Sneak Up on Form, Fit, and Function
A part may carry a dozen or two requirements. Trying to check every box on the first revision is expensive — and rev 2 is just as expensive. Progressive validation is the right-size hammer: quick-and-dirty FDM for an in-hand size check, higher-fidelity prints or CNC when tolerances matter, a cosmetic model for decision-maker approval versus a ruggedized model for users who will beat it up in the field.
Track-day plastic trim is the example Dymond likes. You are testing aero or debris durability for one week. You do not need perfect gunmetal gray or multi-year UV. You need correct form and mechanical properties so the pieces assemble and survive the test.
Form is less CAD accuracy and more UX in the hand — bulky, transportable, ergonomic. Fit is what CAD assemblies hide until parts go together: square-into-round-hole problems, interferences, assembly surprises. Function needs more than best-case user testing. If you want quantity one, make quantity two and break one. Make a third for aging — sun, humidity, seawater — so you get longevity data, not only day-one performance.
Datasheets Are a Guiding Light
Materials have characteristics independent of form factor. Nylon properties change with moisture. Additive can be about 40% stronger in X/Y than in Z. Two materials can look similar on paper and behave very differently once they sit in your geometry. The same ultimate tensile strength can mean a catastrophic non-plastic failure in one case and a slow, boring plastic failure in another.
You find that out by making the part and testing it — not by comparing datasheets alone.
Bridge Production Is Where Scale Gets Real
Bridge production is the interim between onesie prototypes and tooling for tens of thousands — urethane casting, compression molding, or scalable additive. You may compromise on the full ideal requirements list, but you get a good interim product and high sample size.
At tens, hundreds, and thousands, you surface inefficiencies you can fix with manufacturing aids, jigs, fixtures, or light design tweaks. Dymond’s example: hundreds per print and thousands per week on paper, blocked by tiny channels that needed a human with a pipe cleaner all day. Adding a through-hole on the other side of the channel let debris blow out and unblocked the bottleneck.
Whitten frames the lower-volume window as roughly 30 to a few dozen before committing to a tool for something like 10,000. Dymond adds that those quantities are a last chance for light DFM — walk-in fit or a real design change — before tooling locks cost in.
And early physical validation is often cheaper than staying in CAD. Whitten’s example is spending roughly $150 on quick prints to get out of the CAD loop. Dymond’s follow-on is the trade: that can beat paying an expert for hours of research, FEA, and simulation when a couple of printed parts will tell you how they actually perform.
Watch Episode 3
Chapters
- 0:00 – Welcome & shop update
- 1:30 – Intros
- 3:00 – Episode 3: prototyping
- 4:14 – A prototype is a snapshot of the process
- 5:40 – Prove the process, not just the part
- 6:22 – Cosmetic quantity-one vs. production intent
- 9:18 – Form, fit, function: sneak up on requirements
- 11:07 – Track-day trim: right-size the hammer
- 12:21 – Form = UX in the hand
- 13:49 – Fit: assembly surprises CAD misses
- 14:46 – Function: break one, age one
- 15:43 – Material datasheets as a guiding light
- 17:48 – What bridge production is for
- 21:19 – Key takeaways
- 22:44 – Cost of early physical validation
- 23:31 – Wrap-up & Episode 4
Sign up for the full series to get every episode as it drops.
Keep Learning
- Episode 1: The First DFM Question Isn’t How Tight. It’s How Many.
- Episode 2: Print It or Mold It? Ask Per Part, Not Per Product
- Design. Validate. Scale. fireside chat series
Contact Us
Talk with one of our engineering experts. Contact Us
