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5 Ways to Streamline Factory Acceptance Testing

Engineering is sometimes like playing a game of whack-a-mole. Sometimes you get caught up, but there’s always that one mole that comes out of nowhere, jumps up, and smacks you across the face with its furry paw. Let’s talk about the things you should think about while designing your product, before it ever hits the […]

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Maker Faire Recap: 3Doodler Pen Teardown Event with Kickstarter

Maker Faire Bay Area holds a special place in our hearts: three years ago, two brothers showed up with a small booth, to hand out business cards and take orders for Fictiv—a radical new 3D printing service powered by a distributed network of top-tier vendors. Fast forward to Maker Faire 2016, the Fictiv team joined […]

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The Building Blocks of Product Concept Generation

This article was written by Olivia Eaton, Product Design Engineer at Verily Life Sciences , and Kassidy MacPhail, Product Development Engineer at Neptune Medical, when they were part of Generate at Northeastern University. ‍Great ideas form through critical observations of everyday things and by envisioning potential improvements to the mundane. While it’s easy to assume […]

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May Hardware Roundup

Welcome to another month of the Fictiv Hardware Roundup, where we share interesting news, education, events, and opportunities from the hardware ecosystem. A huge thank you to all the folks who reached out last month with feedback on Hardware Roundup, all your insight is greatly appreciated. We’ll be incorporating your suggestions over the next few […]

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How to Design Assemblies to Be Self-Locating and Self-Fixturing

There’s a reason kids love Lego. When I was a kid, nothing was more valuable to me than my big blue bucket of the multi-colored bricks. Even when my parents encouraged my interest in engineering with more complex Fischer Technics, nothing replaced the joy of quickly snapping pieces together in increasingly complex shapes. Wouldn’t it […]

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An Introduction to Solenoids

Like cavemen did thousands of years ago with fire, you might have just struck upon an incredibly revolutionary idea. As you coin down your concept and think of ways to make it as simple as possible, you’ll probably come across mechanical functions that require linear action. Energy can be converted into linear motion by an […]

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10 Amazing Engineering Jobs We’d Love to Have

No one becomes an engineer for the cubicle view. Whether inspired by inventors like Edison or falling into engineering because of math talent, we don’t dream of paperwork and taupe upholstery. Looking for more? Engineers at these great companies are changing the world and creating inspiring new technology. These are jobs we’re jealous of—jobs that […]

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March Hardware Roundup

Welcome to another month of the Fictiv Hardware Roundup, where we share interesting news, education, events, and opportunities from the hardware ecosystem. Want to contribute? Have feedback? Just want to talk hardware? Shoot me an email at madelynn@fictiv.com. Industry News Congrats to Lemnos Labs, one of the leading seed stage hardware venture firms, for raising […]

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Keeping Copycats Away: A Guide to Patents for Hardware Products

As an entrepreneur, you’ve probably heard this many times: “Ideas are worthless until you get them out of your head and see what they can do.” Every big idea starts with a small first step and many leaps of faith to get it realized. However, you’ve probably also seen big Kickstarter projects get funded, only […]

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Spring Design Part 3: How Springs are Manufactured

According to our 2017 State of Hardware Report survey participants, the second most useful website in existence is YouTube. Not surprising—where else are you going to find a quick CAD tutorial, learn about manufacturing, and watch a blender shred a brand new iPhone? As such, we’ve compiled a list of YouTube videos that show how […]