From the aspects related to performance, to the new challenges of sustainability: New Ermes Europe talks about its approach to the most strategic phase of product development and reveals how the NE22 Flexy nozzle was born, working side by side with the customer.
For New Ermes Europe, design is absolutely the strategic phase per excellence in the product development and is managed by a team of people within the company which includes the two offices of Crosio della Valle (VA) and the Chinese one of Yuyao (Ningbo Ermes), with whom the Italian staff works in constant daily contact, thanks to the digital information technology in recent years.
Riccardo Roschi, R&D and Sales Manager of New Ermes Europe, illustrates what design means today for the Lombard company, considering the new environmental criteria and the most advanced technological tools. And the manager doesn’t just talk about design, but also about co-design: NEE knows how to be a true partner for the customer, as demonstrated by the collaboration from which the NE22 Flexy nozzle was born.
In your opinion, what are the most delicate aspects of design?
Up until yesterday, the design aspects were linked above all to the performance and life time of the product, aspects that we have absolutely never underestimated, proof of which is our laboratory in Italy where all the necessary measurements and evaluations are carried out, with specific test equipment in line with IEC/ASTM standard. Today, the know-how acquired over the years and the current demands of the global market have led us to consider, right from the early stages of the project, other factors that New Ermes Europe considers to be “delicate and fundamental” at the same time.
Today’s product must respond to feasibility criteria aimed at avoiding waste of all kinds in order to safeguard the environment in which we live, therefore our engineering phase, from the earliest stages, takes into consideration factors such as:
• reduction of the number of components;
• reuse, where possible, of existing components from our other products;
• use of recycled/certified plastic materials (but not always possible as unfortunately today these materials are still too expensive);
• research of new materials loaded with additives that reduce the weight of the plastic material, keeping its technical characteristics unchanged;
• study of the connection systems between the components aimed at facilitating their assembly but also their disassembly during the recycling phase of the product, once the life time of the product itself has been reached;
• also in the packaging we have started to propose – we can successfully affirm – alternative materials to the classic packaging. For some customers we supply packaging with FSC certified cardboard. We are also abolishing, where possible, the use of polybags for packaging products, introducing the use of recycled paper.
Do you use advanced design tools?
We make use of CAD systems for the development of the mathematics of the various components and since we also design and produce moulds for thermoplastic moulding for customers out of our products, we make use of the Mould-flow system and provide the customer with a complete DFM report.
Where necessary to verify potential problems of some components, we have rapid prototyping internally using 3D printing, to verify immediately its effective validity.
We also perform assembly process’ simulation to optimize the times of each individual inline assembly station.
