Product development

Having a wide design-to-manufacture background enables us to reduce the required development time of designing new solutions.

Our main expertise comes from combining our internal production technologies. The accumulated know-how from the past 70+ years offers an excellent basis for customer-defined product development through our internal design-to-manufacture approach.
Aside from moldflow analyses for plastic and aluminium components that offer us great support during the design development and feasibility improvement loop, both internally and externally, we also perform other supporting numerical analysis that are crucial for mechanically loaded structural parts.

Product optimisation

We are focused on reducing production costs through our internal design optimisation approach.

With the sustainability aspect being one of the main customer requirements over the last years, our main aim during the product optimisation stage is to minimise the amount of material used to reach the required component function. While doing so, we also consider other constraints, such as the production process itself, part quality (e.g. warpage) requirements and product lifetime expectation. This internally developed supporting approach has proven to be crucial during the rise of e-mobility and also other sectors where weight reduction and the resulting production cost savings requirements have reached new industry heights.

• Design simplification

  Product design itself is the main source of potential manufacturability and quality related issues. Based on our experience, more than 80% of all production issues can be sourced back to the part design. Therefore, the main attention in terms of the overall feasibility is placed on part simplification, which can lead to simpler production tools (injection moulding, aluminium HPDC) or to quicker and less time consuming machining (CNC machining and turning). Apart from production simplifications, quality related issues need to be solved with appropriate geometry modifications prior to the design-freeze stage.

• Technology optimisation

  Final product quality tweaks can be reached through optimisation of the manufacturing process. This doesn't only include parametric optimisation of the process conditions, but also the selection of the appropriate tool materials for either machining or moulding operations. At Iskra ISD, we are experienced with the latest tool steel alloys (e.g. improved heat conductivity steel) and PVD coatings that enable us to solve the most demanding technical challenges of the current industry needs.

• Material selection

  Appropriate material selection that not only fulfils the short term, but also long-term product requirements can be a daunting task. Through our established development partnerships with our material suppliers, we can guide you through the process of the appropriate polymer selection, Al alloys selection, shaft material selection or the correct electroplating method and coating type selection. The combined knowledge of our production technologies has proven to be a vital advantage for hybrid and other complex technical parts.

Research fields

To stay competitive, we are extending our research into strategic fields that will rise in importance in the next 5 - 10 years.

Our internally defined research fields follow Iskra ISD's general strategy of developing and producing the technically most demanding hybrid solutions. With the research that we conduct together with our academic partners, we primarily develop new ways of fusing materials with no chemical adhesion. The continually higher requirements for efficiency of material use have also led us to co-developing new aluminium alloys and polymer compounds with improved specific strength that we offer to our customers. Additionally, to follow the sustainability requirements set by the EU, we also heavily invest in co-developing new anti-corrosion coatings that are based on environmentally friendly technologies.

• Fusion of materials with no chemical adhesion

  Reaching a multifunctional solution through several complex assembly stages is the approach of yesterday. Today, we combine the benefits of different materials by going hybrid. This means that we combine different material types (metals and polymers) through sequential production processes while avoiding extra assembly steps. This approach leads to combining materials with different thermal expansion coefficients, chemical structures and mechanical properties. Apart from classical bonding methods (plasma treatment, gluing…), we primarily focus on methods that require no additional chemical bonding adhesives.

• Development of new materials

  Together with our material suppliers and academic partners, we are able to prepare custom material solutions, designed and adjusted to your specific needs. For extreme operating conditions and external loads, off-the-shelf solutions are often insufficient or can be oversized. In such cases, we prepare specially tailored solutions that follow your specific product needs.

• Development of new coatings

  Traditional electroplating methods have been used for a long time, and they will most likely remain active for years to come. However, at Iskra ISD we think ahead. New European regulations that require a sustainable and eco-friendly approach have additionally motivated us to co-develop and industrialise new cutting edge coating methods that are based on completely different production technologies.