© 2009 Dream Merchant Dream Merchant • 2309 Torrance Blvd. #104, Torrance, CA 90501 (310) 328-1925 email: Jkm316@aol.com THE IMPORTANCE OF TESTING
When Designing a New Product, Test it Often.
By Ken Tarlow
As you're developing your product, you are entering unknown territory. This is both the wonderful part of developing a new product and sometimes the most frustrating part, as well. There is no guide book. You are doing this for the first time. And so you are going to be trying many new things. Sometimes they will work, and sometimes they won't .
You need to be keeping records of everything you try in a stitched journal. This journal shows the Patent Office that you've gone through the process of trying things and experimenting with things to finally arrive at a particular solution. This is what the Patent Office is looking for to determine the date of first invention, the fact that this is an original idea, and that you went through this experimental process to get to your solution.
You need to start this journal as soon as possible. And as you're experimenting, trying various solutions, you should take notes on what you've tried so you can show the step-by-step progress in the development of your product.
Each time you come up with a new piece of your product, you need to test it to make sure it works the way you want. If it doesn't perform to your expectations, then you have to either make it stronger, or make it lighter, or do whatever it takes to make it work. Sometimes there is too much friction in things and you have to add a bearing or some Teflon to make things slip easily.
Sometimes the motor is not powerful enough and you've got to take it out and put a more powerful one in. You'll run into dozens of different challenges as you're developing your product and discovering what the needs are of that product.
If your product will present some danger to the public, then it's going to need to be tested by an official testing agency such as Underwriter's Laboratories. They will test your product for temperature or fatigue or electronic safety to make sure that people are not going to shock themselves when they use your product. If your product is plugged into household current, there must be an official test. Underwriter's Laboratories can do that. They have safety standards which you can send for.
What I try to do with electrical products is see if I can get them to work with low D.C. voltage. Then I can use a wall pack transformer. These are already UL approved. And the power coming from the wall pack transformer through the wire to your product is low DC voltage that can't hurt anybody. So it's not a danger and it doesn't have to be tested by an official agency. The less testing that is needed, the better, because the testing can be very time-consuming and expensive.
So if there is any way to design a product more safely so that it doesn't need to be officially tested, the better off you are. When you make your presentation to an investor or to a potential licensee, it always makes a positive impression on them to say you've built your prototype, and tested it for X-amount of hours, and you've made sure that all the components and the design are safe and that nothing will break or deteriorate during normal use, even during conditions of misuse.
The above article was excerpted from Ken Tarlow's MIND TO MONEY, a workbook package that can help you develop a new product from the idea stage to the marketplace. MIND TO MONEY may be ordered from the Dream Merchant at $59.95 plus $4.95 CA sales tax and$5 shipping and handling ($69.90 total). Send orders to the Dream Merchant, 2309 Torrance Blvd., Suite 104, Torrance, CA 90501.
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