Case Studies

Automotive, Furniture and Product Prints: An Origin Story

Project Details

Origin Date: August of 2019

Product Development Excellence Learned from the U.S. Automotive Industry

The origins of Product Prints might seem typical of an engineering company at first glance. However, the depth of preparation and humble beginnings set it apart. Our CEO and Senior Account Executive, Austin Moore, was the unexpected college-goer in his family. After growing up wrenching on a ’64 Pontiac GTO, riding dirt bikes and always being the fix-it, go-to around the house, he then ventured into the automotive sector after graduating with a Mechanical Engineering degree from UCF. Dreaming of leading one of the world’s largest automotive companies, he grew knowledge of consumer-centric product design, engineering analysis, durability testing, manufacturing and supply chain. Along the way, he decided there may be another use for this knowledge.

A Handwritten Business Card Started After-Hours Business

Rotating among software, electric motor, and transmission departments, addressing challenges that others didn’t have the capacity to handle in software, electric motor, and transmission groups. Eventually, Austin found his niche in the Cadillac and Corvette team’s chassis structures as the team had a need for an engineering lead to launch products into production. There, he led collaborations with 10 vendors and coordinated with assembly plants to launch chassis and suspension components for the 2022 CT4 and CT5 Cadillacs, and the 2023 Corvette. All the while, Austin was starting to work with Rustic Creations, designing the new metal features for Allen Parent’s metallic features. There was no precision metallics, there was no durability testing or high quality control for production planning. But it was the start after Allen found a handwritten business card posted in the Alro Steel yard in Metro-Detroit.

Product Prints Develops Full-Time Commitment to Clients

Family commitments called, prompting Austin to relocate himself and Product Prints to Orlando, FL. While continuing his collaboration with Rustic Creations, he took up a position with Nautique Boat Company as the lead propulsion engineer in their Research and Development Department. There, while valuing family time, he expanded his knowledge in composites and continued to build relationships that would foster into a full-time need for Product Prints. Chava Wind was positioned to take over the small grid, wind-energy market and AO-ES.com was becoming a raging bull in the welding industry for safety connections. Austin pull’s out all the stops to get Chava’s carbon fiber pipeline back online after a fully constructed 3 tier supply chain system and AO Connector was born after design revisions and strenuous ISO testing. Plastic injection molds then became another specialty of the Product Prints portfolio and more industrial designers were brought on the support the workload to bring AO-ES success.

Precision Metals, Plastic Mold Injection, Composites, Structures and Quality Control Expertise

Enter the SeaMule team and the launch of their all new product the FlushMaster. A water management system to ease the pain so many boaters after a long day on the water. During his work on AO-ES, the SeaMule team needed quality control on their new product before the launch because of water leak issues and valve controls. The General Motors quality control came shining through and it was nightly meetings with the manufacturing team in Hong Kong until launch. A few tooling changes, torque requirements, blueprint packages, quality documentation, wire harness changes, durability testing, inter-process check mandates and process control, the FlushMaster was a polished gem. Full circle GM manufacturing control process. Product Print was officially covering all their bases and a newly formed overseas manufacturing relationship was born.

Product Prints Today

The turning point came when a connection led Austin to a client that nudged him towards full-time self-employment. He began designing plastic injection molded parts and metallic components, forging valuable partnerships with overseas manufacturers. Suddenly, Product Prints transformed from a dream into a tangible, thriving enterprise, with its products marching towards the production line. Today, Product Prints Co stands as a treasure trove of product design and manufacturing expertise. With a network of partners, it is committed to crafting exceptional products that amplify the profits and brand reputation of its clients.