Introduction

Since 1998, Beaumont has been operating and growing to improve the injection molding industry. From transformative patented technologies like MeltFlipper® to training, production, material characterization, and simulation services provided by unmatched in-house teams, Beaumont has served the industry for over 25 years. While plastics companies, workforces, manufacturers, and OEMs make up the majority of our customers, we also have the opportunity to support startups and individual entrepreneurs in need of plastics knowledge and application.

We recently had the opportunity to work with entrepreneur Matt Smith and help bring his company’s first product to life. In 2020, Matt founded Dunwyvern Gaming: a start-up “built by gamers for gamers,” that seeks to fill industry gaps by creating products with highly desired features not found elsewhere. As a career engineer, Matt created his design and had been producing models via 3D printing when he knew the next step was to find an injection molder, and made it a priority to keep all work and production in the US. As an Erie, Pennsylvania local, Matt didn’t have to go far to find Beaumont. The primary factor in his choice to stick with Beaumont is our integrated in-house capabilities: the Beaumont Development team, which provides simulation and consulting, works seamlessly with our tooling and manufacturing teams of Beaumont Advanced Processing to bring ideas like Matt’s from design to market.

The Product: SideQuest

Dunwyvern Gaming’s inaugural product is the SideQuest: a left-handed, ergonomic, and fully customizable gaming keypad. Matt explains that the SideQuest stands out from others on the market because it includes an ergonomic design, mechanical keys, and a full motion analog stick in one controller. Other features and specs include:

• Designed with natural hand contour that allows the user to engage with the keys head-on at 90 degrees
• 26 keys in addition to the analog thumbstick
• Multiple mode profiles, saving up to 7 on the SideQuest to take on the go
• Cherry MX Low Profile RGB Speed switches
• Dedicated line from each key switch to the 32bit processor, minimizing delay in game play
• Fully customizable LED color enhanced by custom keycaps- use a preprogrammed lighting effect or DIY

View more information about the SideQuest here.

The Process

Matt began his project with Beaumont by consulting with Beaumont Development’s team of simulation engineers to go over his designs. Every simulation project begins and ends with a meeting between the team and customer to ensure all of the customer’s needs are taken into consideration and met throughout the process. During initial discussions, it was determined that Autodesk Moldflow simulation analysis would be run on three parts: the top, the bottom, and the palm rest. Matt selected Beaumont Development’s Comprehensive Analysis Gold Level Package, one of the most popular packages we offer due to the high return on its cost.

Results from the Moldflow simulations provided insight into changes to the original part design. The team at Beaumont Advanced Processing, responsible for the tool creation and production molding, contributed to the conversation on part design with Beaumont Development and Matt. Our customers benefit from having our teams collaborate seamlessly to provide expert input in all areas of the process, including part design, injection molding processing, mold design, and plastic materials. Having teams of experienced plastics engineers involved in the project allows customers like Matt to make the best decisions for their part designs upfront, eliminating potential issues in tooling and production that would cost additional time and money to fix. In this case, we ran four iterations for the part design -which are all included in the cost of our Comprehensive Analysis Gold Level Package- in order to select the best choices for quality and manufacturability.

Beaumont Advanced Processing then implemented the processing guidelines from the comprehensive analysis seamlessly onto the manufacturing floor. As a result, only minor grooming was necessary to achieve the desired fit and function of the 33 molded components utilized in SideQuest. By entrusting his injection molding needs to Beaumont, Matt avoided having to work with separate companies or groups to meet all of his needs. Our in-house teams of plastics engineers were able to successfully support the production of the SideQuest by helping to maximize efficiency, predict and mitigate part design flaws, and eliminate manufacturing issues- all at a cost affordable to a first-time entrepreneur. 

About Beaumont Development's Comprehensive Gold Package

Whether you’re an entrepreneur like Matt looking to get part simulation done for the first time, or a seasoned OEM engineer, Beaumont can help improve your process. The Comprehensive Gold Package includes:

• Foundational Moldflow Analysis (Filling/Packing Analysis)

Identifies potential concerns and optimizes the part for manufacturability. Determines the optimum fill time, pressure requirement, shear rates, gate freeze, clamp tonnage, predicted filling progressions, and issues such as hesitation, weld lines, air traps, sink/voids, etc.

• Gate Location Study

Determines the best gate location(s) based upon acceptable gating surfaces.

• Runner Sizing

Determines the optimum sizes for runners and gates based upon packing ability and available pressure, while minimizing material volume.

• Cooling Analysis

Evaluate and optimize the cooling channel design based upon a provided mold design to minimize temperature variations, their effect on warpage, and to reduce cycle time.

• Warpage Analysis

Predicts the trend and magnitude of part warpage and determines root cause(s). Beaumont will analyze various solutions for improving part warpage.

To learn more about our simulation packages or other service offerings, contact us!