Mechanical design, prototypes and electronics for small hardware companies and inventors.
Dowr is a design engineering consultancy in Bristol. Send a sketch, a photo or an old part. Dowr can take it all the way to a working prototype, or just do the bit of CAD you're stuck on.
Taking on new work now. Start an enquiry or email jacob@dowr.uk.
Services
Full design scope
From a rough idea to a design a manufacturer can quote from. That means concept, detailed CAD, drawings and a bill of materials, with one engineer running it from start to finish so nothing gets lost between stages.
Prototyping
FDM parts are printed in-house, so a new revision can be tested quickly. Machined parts and circuit boards come from specialist suppliers.
Electronics integration
Custom PCBs in KiCad, wiring, sensors and control code in Python, packaged inside the product rather than bolted on afterwards.
Typical jobs
- A sealed or machined enclosure for an electronics product
- Brackets, mounts and fixtures, drawn so a machine shop can quote them
- A mechanism that has to fold, lock, slide or lift
- An old or broken part rebuilt in CAD so it can be made again
- A sketch or idea turned into CAD and a first printed prototype
- Sensors, wiring and a controller added to a mechanical product
- A design checked with simulation before money goes on tooling
- Existing CAD tidied up, with proper drawings for manufacture
If yours isn't on the list, send it anyway.
Or just the part you need
| Service | What you get | Format |
|---|---|---|
| CAD modelling | Parametric model of the part or assembly | STEP, Parasolid |
| Manufacturing drawings | Dimensioned, toleranced drawings | |
| Enclosure design | Model and drawings with sealing and material notes | STEP, PDF |
| Reverse engineering | Model rebuilt from a sample or scan | STEP |
| DFM review | Written list of manufacturing issues and fixes | |
| Renders | Product images for pitches and listings | PNG, JPG |
| Patent drawings | Line drawings to patent office format |
Files come in neutral formats, so you're not tied to any one CAD package.
About
Dowr is run by Jacob Tucker, a product design engineer. You deal directly with the engineer doing the work, from the first call to the final files.
dowrCornish, nounwater
The name came from Dowr-1, the autonomous underwater vehicle Jacob designed and built to map water quality. That project is what started all of this, and when the consultancy needed a name, it carried straight over. Jacob grew up on the coast in Cornwall.
Before founding Dowr, Jacob worked freelance as a CAD and product design engineer, taking on modelling, drawing and design work for a range of clients. Dowr grew out of that freelance work.
Before that, he spent time in Cape Verde as a CAD and surveying technician, working alongside the engineers planning the logistics for a resort and the villages around it.
Dowr-1 and a generative surfboard core are on the projects page.
Skills
| CAD | SolidWorks every day for parts, assemblies, surfacing and sheet metal. Fusion 360 and Rhino when the job suits them |
|---|---|
| Drawings | Manufacturing drawings to BS 8888, toleranced for the process that makes the part |
| Simulation | CFD in ANSYS Fluent and SolidWorks Flow Simulation, FEA in SolidWorks Simulation, results checked against hand calculations in MATLAB |
| Generative design | Grasshopper scripts and generative design for light, load-driven structures |
| Design for manufacture | DFM and DFA reviews, FMEA |
| PCB design | Custom boards in KiCad, from schematic to board layout |
| Electronics integration | Sensors, wiring, connectors and sealed electronics enclosures |
| Control code | Python, including state machines and live data dashboards |
| Prototyping | FDM and SLA printing, laser cutting, composite layup and leak testing |
| Rendering | KeyShot product renders |
| Education | BSc (Hons) Product Design Technology, UWE Bristol |
How a job runs
- Enquiry. Send what you have: a sketch, a photo or an old part.
- Quote. Scope, deliverables, dates and a fixed price, in writing.
- Deposit. A deposit is paid before any work starts.
- Check-ins. You review and sign off each stage before the next one starts.
- Delivery. Final STEP and PDF files, then the final invoice.
If the scope or price needs to change, that gets agreed in writing first.
Contact
What are you making?
You'll get a reply within two working days, with questions or a quote. Or email jacob@dowr.uk, or call 07756 739076.