Designing products that are fit for purpose without being 'over designed' has many benefits and can provide a competitive edge in the market place.

The factors we consider in optimising a design are:

• Component strength and stiffness
• Component weight
• Strength to weight ratio
• Setting appropriate failure criteria and factors of safety
• Material of construction and material cost
• Ease of manufacture

Our experience and the methods we use allow us to identify the critical areas of the component and those area where weight savings can be made.

Typical examples are:

· High performance hand tools:

Aim - to minimise the weight to reduce operator fatigue

Solution - to use titanium to provide a high strength to weight ratio and to optimise the shape of the casting using finite element analysis.

· Test equipment for aircraft components:

Aim - to minimise the weight for ease of handling and reduce material costs

Solution - to revise the design rules to bring them into line with accepted codes for pressurised equipment and to re-evaluate the minimum required material thicknesses to permit weight reductions.