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Fictiv Secures $33M in Series C

At Fictiv, our vision has always been to enable product developers to build hardware at the speed of software. Today we’re excited to announce we’re accelerating and realizing this vision with a $33M investment by G2VP, Mitsui & Co., Intel Capital, Sinovation, Bill Gates, Accel, and Tandon Group. Like us, these partners share our vision […]

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December Hardware Roundup

Happy New Year, and welcome to the latest edition of Fictiv’s Hardware Roundup! Read on for stories on AI in factories, production heaven, tin can openers, electric wire manufacturing, and more. Want to share an interesting article, job posting, or event in Hardware Roundup? Submit your link here, and we’ll do our best to include […]

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Fictiv Achieves ISO Quality Management Certification

At Fictiv, we take quality management very seriously and have maintained strict quality standards since our founding in 2013. Today, we’re proud to announce that Fictiv is officially ISO 9001:2015 certified, in accordance with this set of internationally recognized quality management standards. Consistently Fast, Quality Manufacturing at Scale As we continue to help more and […]

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Product Development Planning, from Product Idea to Manufacture

In an engineering utopia, every project would come in on time and under budget—and, of course, be delivered by a unicorn. Two of these are possible, despite all three being rare. But few projects are planned well, so we end up with unrealistic expectations and often don’t figure that out until the project is 80% […]

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Practical Guide to Prototype Testing

Aesthetic design is in the eye of the beholder, but functional prototypes have a different standard—testing—and for most of us, exam day has never been something to which we look forward. However, test day doesn’t have to fill you with the fear you felt going into high school Calculus exams: By setting clear design expectations […]

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Mass Customization: The Future of Made-to-Fit Manufacturing

Once upon a time there were cobblers, who would craft shoes to individual feet. Then came the industrial revolution, and the cobblers were replaced by dozens of factory workers, each performing a single step to build standard shoes—and feet were expected to adapt. This wasn’t all bad; the new shoes were cheaper, and more people […]

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Manufacturing at Different Magnitudes Part 2: From 100 – 1,000 Units

One of the greatest challenges hardware teams face is in figuring out how to approach low volume production at awkward volumes of 100 – 1,000 units, before scaling to manufacture tens of thousands of units. In part 1 of this series, we covered best practices for manufacturing field testing units or made-to-engineer products at low […]

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How to Prepare Your Request for Quote Package

Seven hundred years ago, Marco Polo returned from the Far East with tales of wonder and exotic goods, like silks, fine porcelains, and spices, which would set the trends for the upper classes of Europe for centuries to come. These days, importing products comes with less fame, but it has also never been easier: Manufacturers […]

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Sphero on the Engineering Behind their New Star Wars Products

Star Wars enthusiasts around the galaxy were captivated by the debut of the new, spherical droid BB-8™ in 2015’s The Force Awakens and subsequently rushed to purchase their own little droids, made by Boulder-based Sphero. Now, fans are eagerly snapping up the new BB-9E droid and the beloved classic, R2-D2. We teamed up with Sphero’s […]

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Manufacturing at Different Magnitudes Part 1: From 10 – 100 Units

What does the word “production” mean to you? An engineer at a large consumer goods company might think of multi-cavity injection molding tools that cast parts day and night, and assembly lines that run multiple shifts. On the other hand, an engineer that works at a medical equipment company might think about getting a few […]