NEWS

Judging the next generation of designers

Tecatech were invited to judge in the First China Youth Crossover Creative Competiti-on. The next generation of young designers were competing on the first ‘cross over’ design competition sponsored by SINA...

More details here....

UK Design in China

Our recent event 'UK Design in China' as part of the London Design Festival was a great success, thank you to all who took part in the workshops and panel talk and also to Creative Connexions and the TECAtech team.

More details here....

Consumer Electronics Show

For the first time selected Design companies from all over the world were invited to participate in the SinoCES exhibition in Qingdao. China’s International Consumer Electronics Show

More here...

DesignModels.co.uk

We have launched a new protptyping serive for UK desiners called Design Models, our process provides a high quality painted finish which looks just like a real product or part and at a very competitive price.

Web Link here.....

First Wireless Ear-buds

Working with wireless technology company Kleer, we have helped to develop the worlds first high quality wireless earbuds for MP3 players. The headphones just launched in the US provide better sound quality than Bluetooth but last three times longer due to lower power consumption. More here....

Second year of high sales
The in-car DVD players designed for RCA have sold over one hundred thousand units since their launch and continue to retail in wal-mart following a design update for a second year.

Design week
The UKs top design consultancies attended an event in Japan as covered by this article by design week: Japan showcase for UK at DesignUK event.

Britain's pool of design talent and creativity was brought to this year's Tokyo Design Week in Japan last week, in the shape of the fourth annual DesignUK 07.

More information...

MXTV Tokyo Interview

MXTV Tokyo Business News interviewed us at the Design UK event at Tokyo Design Week.

TV Tokyo interview
TV Tokyos World Business Satellite programme interviewed us following the design services forum in Tokyo mid-town during DesignUK 07.

WELCOME

Tecatech is a British Design and Innovation Company specialising in market targeted product design for the U.S. and Europe.

Coming from a highly international and multicultural environment we have been working internationally to provide innovative product design for the markets we understand the best.

We can bring market research, trend forecasting and high quality European Design directly from our office in China enabling our clients to increase their sales and raise their profile in the West.

APPROACH

Design is a key differentiator in establishing Market presence, but successful global design requires true understanding of individual markets and cultures. We have a track record of successful products in Europe, North America, China and Japan and we know how to tailor our solutions to fit these different regions.

Combining engineering and design we create innovative solutions with new added value. We consider new technologies, materials, trends, and fashions and integrate this understanding in the product development process.

LOCATION

With design offices both in the UK and China we offer unique advantages for companies manufacturing products in China for the UK market, as well as for companies targeting the Chinese and other Asian markets.

We provide accessible European design combined seamlessly with engineering, tooling and production in China. We eliminate the gap, the delays, and the problems. We are uniquely positioned to act as a cultural bridge for our clients in Asia and the West.

We aim to be a leading creative company importing innovation and design from the UK and exporting Engineering Design, Prototyping and Manufacture from China. Additionally we can offer western companies access to the growing Chinese market.

TEAM

With a mixed team of UK creative designers and Chinese engineers we are able to offer a highly innovative and versatile design service with a track record of high volume sales and successful patented design innovation with the quality control you would expect from a British company.

OUR DESIGN PROCESS

Our Design work normally begins with a brief setting out the aims and objectives of a project and outlining certain targets and parameters for its completion. Our proposal will outline our understanding or our clients requirement before we begin.

Research and opportunity mapping
We begin most projects with a research study of market trends and relevant design references within the target market segment. This helps to define a design direction for the concept generation phase, additionally we can use this stage to help to identify market gap opportunities.

Concept development
The research phase normally leads directly into the generation of a wide range of design concepts either in 2D or 3D. Using idea generation techniques and structured concept development we explore a wide range of possible solutions to a problem and then together with the client choose the best solutions to develop further.

Mechanical Engineering
In this phase the concepts are modelled in 3D and the final level of detail is added to the design. Realistic renderings of the concepts are produced for presentation and solid model data is produced for the mechanical design stage. Detail design of each component and generation of 3D CAD files and engineering drawings are provided.

Prototyping and manufacturing
We can offer a full prototyping and product manufacturing service at very competitive costs due to our location in China. We are experienced accompanying our clients through the manufacturing stage of the product. Design and engineering changes are made to best meet the manufacturing requirements.

EXPOSURE

NEWS

Single Design for Multiple Markets
A single design can be used across different market regions and retail at different price points with suitable changes to colours, finish and graphics without altering the tooling.
This design was used for both the RCA brand in the U.S. and Thomson in Europe.

New Office Location
We have moved our office from Hong Kong to Shenzhen. Our new location now ideally situated for easy access to the manufacturers and development houses we work with.

TECA Concept Vehicle

Innovation is the heart of what we do. We believe that innovation within new product development is the key to creating a successful market leading solution.

The TECA Concept VEhicle is a case study to illustrate our abilities to approach an existing product and radically redefine what it does and how it works.

More information...

WELCOME
NEWS
APPROACH
LOCATION
TEAM
DESIGN PROCESS
  OPPORTUNITY MAPPING
  CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
  MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
  PROTOTYPING/MANUFACTURING
EXPOSURE
CASE STUDIES
  CONSUMER ELECTRONICS
  PORTABLE DVD PLAYER
  SIMPLE REMOTE CONTROL
  WIRELESS EAR BUDS
  HOME THEATER SYSTEM
  DIGITAL CAMERA
  AUDIO VISUAL SUITE
  INTERNET RADIO
  MEDICAL EQUIPMENT
  MEDICAL FILTER
  FLUID DRAINAGE TAP
  SPORTS EQUIPMENT
  CAR CLEANING BRUSH
  CYCLE TOOL
  CYCLE TRAILOR
  SNOWBOARD ATTACHMENT
  TECATECH BIKE

CONTACT US:

by email
info@tecatech.com

by phone
UK 44 790 503 2171
CN 86 755 2513 1396

by skype
tecatech

Portable DVD Player

Working directly with manufacturers in China to provide products for the US and European markets has given us a greater understanding of how to get the best results and maintain design integrity throughout the product development process.

Working closely with Chinese Manufacturer KXD for our client, a well know US Brand, we provided Industrial Design and Mechanical Design guidance to ensure our original concept immerged from the manufacture process. Controlling and guiding manufacturers and development houses up to the point of production can mean the difference between success and failure when the product meets the customer.

Simple Remote Control

Remote controls are often crammed with all sorts of functions that are never or very rarely used. An important part of our approach to designing any human interface is to reduce the complexity.

In this example for a DVD recorder remote we studied the way the product was used and altered the design to prioritise the most popular functions and moved the less frequently used buttons to a hidden area of the remote for more advanced users.

This approach has the added benefit that customers build a degree of confidence in the product before they make the purchase rather than being put off by complicated looking controls. We used simple block prototypes to refine the ergonomics quite early on in the design process ensuring the most popular buttons were the most comfortable to use.

Wireless Ear Buds

Working with wireless technology company Kleer, we have helped to develop the worlds first high quality wireless earbuds for MP3 players.

The headphones just launched in the US provide better sound quality than Bluetooth but last three times longer due to lower power consumption.

The headphones use a duel aerial system to eliminate the drop out problem common with Bluetooth headsets for phones.

To allow a first-to-market entry level product the final design used a cable to connect the two ear phones together – this greatly reduced cost as only one IC and battery was needed.

Home Theater system

The fast moving market for consumer electronics requires a constant stream of new designs to keep pace with the competitors product offerings each season. We followed this range of home theatre DVD systems for two years updating the design and features in-line with the changing market position and price point.

Easy Use Digital Camera

This high definition digital camcorder was designed to have a simple user interface and raise the price point to nearly twice that of the low definition model.

Modern electronic components often fail to give a true impression of their worth, although capable of taking very high quality pictures the small lens unit inside the camera fails to convey this.

Our approach for this model was to give greater emphasis to the lens, simplify the user interface and add value with materials and finishes but maintaining its compact size.

As part of the development process we made many ergonomic study models to test various orientations of components and use

Saturn Audio Visual Suite

The Saturn audiovisual suite for Vivadi is a high-end TV and Hi-fi system. We worked with Vivadi to establish a future-proof design, extending the product lifecycle well beyond that of conventional consumer electronics.

The solution for this product was to separate out the elements of the design that would be suitable for longer-term use and those that were likely to change within a much shorter time scale. The range of products for Vivadi all incorporate a similar philosophy ; include the best technology to date – but allow the electronics to be easily updated in the future.

Removable modules which can be easily accessed and replaced by the user at home were used, as the technology changes or improves, only a small part of the product becomes outdated and there is no need to replace the whole system.

Internet Radio

We developed a range of internet radios for a large US brand, the brief was to develop different designs for specific user groups identified by the companies user feed back research. We demonstrated how a signle design approach could be altered for each target group to provide a family of related solutions with a common aesthetic and interface.

Medical Filter

Smiths Medical is a market leader in anaesthesia and critical care, working with Smiths this project was an in-depth research and innovation study over a fourteen month period to integrate two important components in a hospital breathing system into one new patented product. By eliminating one of the components used in intensive care and surgery breathing systems large cost savings can be made for healthcare organisations and reduced dead-space and risk of disconnection benefit the patient. This project working directly with Smiths internal staff involved prototyping, testing and full risk analysis as well as patent research and filing.

Fluid Drainage Tap

Developed for SIMS Portex this urostomy drainage tap is designed for patients who have suffered from cancer of the bladder. After surgery a bag is used to collect fluid and patients release the fluid themselves every day. When dealing with such a personal and private matter a great deal of care needs to be taken to ensure the device works without fault and that the patients own concerns and recommendations are taken into account. Following research we improved the design for easy single handed use and added an adapter so male users could use an extra flexible tube when standing at a urinal. The design also reduced the number of parts used to two simple mouldings.

Car Cleaning Brush

Working with a large household products manufacturer, we developed an innovative new system for mixing detergent and water in this brush design. Designed for cleaning alloy car wheels this brush connects to a hose pipe and delivers a measured amount of detergent into the water stream discharged from the head. Our challenge was to create a leak-proof pressure vessel with the smallest possible number of parts.

Minoura Cycle Tool

We worked together with Minoura to revitalise and innovate within their existing range of bicycle repair tools. Following benchmark analysis of competitive products we identified the key selling features and better understood the trend of this market segment. We were then able to reassess the way the product worked and how it was used. This resulted in the end product having new features and a radical new look together with a good understanding of how it would actually be received in the market place.

Cycle Trailor

This patented cycle trailer is an in house project aimed at solving some of the problems of inner city transport. As bicycles are increasingly taking a more important role as an environmentally beneficial alternative to cars some of the limitations of cycling such as how to carry things becomes more apparent. Our in-house brief was to find a folding structure that could be used to carry a load by hand and then easily attach to a bicycle.

Snowboard attachment

The Snowbone is a patented snowboarding product that attaches to a snowboard to allow the user to ride the board like a scooter. Working with the inventor, we helped to prototype, test and develop the idea for manufacture. The patented method of attachment allows the snow board to flex and bend so the rider can steer and control the board. The snowbone fills several market gaps: affordable equipment for the first timer, user friendly equipment for the beginner and a cross over between BMX and snowboarding for the youth or the more adventurous.

TECA Concept Vehicle

TECA is a 'Microvehicle' concept aimed at improving the safety, convenience and efficiency of two-wheeled travel. The Aerodynamic shape should give performance improvements of around 35% and save fuel as well! The structure is a 'monocoque' (ie. the structural frame is on the outside) made from carbon fibre composite and honeycomb. It is light in weight and very strong. The outside structure will protect the occupant even when the bike is sliding down the road on its side.

Why do 45% of people in London travel to work in a car and only 1% use a motorbike?

Why are there no light weight efficient ‘micro-vehicles’ on the market today?

Why can’t lightweight efficient transport be safe as well?

Today’s problems of fuel shortages and environmental pollution issues are apparent to us all. Cars are, of course, a major contributor to global emissions and often a very inefficient way of using our limited fossil fuels, the technology needed to improve fuel efficiency and provide safe and enjoyable transport is already available.

The key to increasing the efficiency of a vehicle is to reduce the weight and improve the aerodynamics. With the use of modern composites, TECA provides a safe, comfortable and fun vehicle that goes faster and costs less to run. It also maintains the key benefits offered by two wheels such as beating the traffic-jams and parking.