Key Takeaways
- We invest significant engineering time upfront at no cost to you, so you only pay for tooling and production.
- Every pre-production activity, from optical simulation to prototyping, is designed to reduce risk before the design is finalized.
- Because our success depends on your production success, our incentives are aligned from day one.
Most engineering and manufacturing partnerships start with an invoice, and then you receive your product. You’ll see line items like consulting fees, design review charges, and retainers; costs that add up over time. As you find and vet a light guide manufacturer, consider asking about their business model to avoid up-front charges like these.
At Global Lighting Technologies, our business model is different by design. We invest significant engineering time before asking for compensation because we believe that if our technology can meet your needs, we want to pursue the project. It’s important to us that you believe we’re a right fit, which is why we prove ourselves first and send the invoice later. Below, I cover how our business model differs from the status quo and why it benefits our customers.
1. Engineering Comes First
Before tooling is ever discussed, a substantial amount of work is already underway. Early conversations with a new customer are split between the commercial and the technical. We want to understand the intent behind the project. We ask ourselves (and you) what we’re trying to achieve, what the product needs to do, and whether our technology is the right fit to get there. That means asking about volumes, design constraints, and requirements that may span reliability, environmental performance, mechanical specs, and materials.
From there, the engineering work begins in earnest. Optical simulations, design reviews, manufacturing input, and early samples or mockups all happen before you need to commit to production. The goal is the same at every stage: understand as much about the design as possible before it’s finalized.
Light Guide Tooling
This matters because of what tooling represents. Once a tool is created, it defines the physical design of the part. Changes after that point require taking the tool down and partially rebuilding it, which costs both capital and time. Every variable we can identify, simulate, or resolve before tooling reduces the likelihood of that scenario. And every variable we can’t address through simulation, we address through prototyping.
2. Choosing the Right Validation Path: Samples, Mockups & Prototypes
The terms mockup, prototype, and sample are often used interchangeably in light guide validation, but there are meaningful distinctions.
Mockups are typically a one-off, early-stage build. It may or may not be fully functional. Its purpose is to give a rough sense of the product, and it’s sometimes created at our own discretion to better understand a design before customer review.
Prototypes are a more official piece. It’s a purchased, measured example of the product with known performance characteristics that will be used to judge how the final production part will perform. Customers typically receive prototypes, not mockups, as the formal pre-production deliverable. Quoted lead times run four to six weeks, though that window can shift depending on project complexity. Learn more about our proven prototype process.
Samples are simply the quantity of mockups, prototypes, and tooled parts that the customer needs.
In addition to the technical data, we place a high value on the visual feedback. How a product looks can be subjective, and early reads on appearance can meaningfully change the direction of a design. Capturing that input before tooling is finalized is far less costly than discovering it after.
3. What Customers Actually Pay For
Customers pay for prototypes, production tooling, and production parts. They don’t pay for engineering time.
That includes optical pattern development. Refining the optical pattern is one of the most iterative parts of our process and one of the areas where we take on the most responsibility. We don’t charge for iterations because we consider it our job to be effective and quick in reaching an optimized pattern. If a customer’s design changes—and they often do—we adjust the pattern at no additional cost, provided no mechanical changes to the tool are required.
Tooling cost itself is driven by two main factors: the type of tool and its size. Tools rated for higher shot counts require more hardening and cost more. Larger parts reduce the opportunity for multi-cavity tooling and limit the equipment capable of running them. In terms of lifespan, production tools are expected to last the life of the product. At the high end, that can mean 300,000 to 1,000,000 shots. While tools have been reported to run longer, wear over time typically causes part dimensions to drift outside specification.
In some cases, prototype tooling can be converted into production tooling, avoiding the need to purchase a second tool entirely.
4. The Optical Insert: Flexibility Built Into the Tool
Our tooling is structured so that the optical pattern insert is separate from the rest of the injection mold. This is a deliberate design choice. When a pattern needs to be refined after tooling is complete, the insert can be replaced without touching the mechanical design of the light guide. We chose to do this so tools don’t need to be rebuilt and there’s no change to part dimension, which results in no additional costs to our customers.
Sometimes a customer will ask, “How many iterations happen after tooling?” There’s no set number. We do as few or as many as needed to meet the customer’s requirements and maximize assembly performance. The goal is flexibility where it matters most and stability everywhere else.
I want to point out what this flexibility does and doesn’t cover: changes to the optical pattern don’t require retooling, but changes to the light guide’s shape do. If a customer makes a mechanical change that alters the part’s geometry, the tool will need to be reworked. In some cases, a component change outside the light guide can be accommodated through a pattern adjustment alone, but that’s evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
5. Why This Model Benefits Customers
We take on the upfront risk because we believe in our technology and processes. For customers, it lowers the barrier to evaluating our technology and removes the financial exposure of a traditional engineering engagement. It also means the incentives are aligned from the start. We only succeed when your production succeeds, which means every decision we make in the design and validation phase is oriented toward getting the program to a healthy production state.
For customers who continue working with us after their first program, there’s another dimension: we’re one of the few companies in this space that both designs light guides and manufactures them. The ability to own both the engineering and the production, under one roof, reduces the complexity and hand-off risk that comes with splitting those functions across vendors.
A Business Model That’s Different by Design
As a light guide manufacturer, our goal has never been to sell engineering hours. Every activity that happens before a tool is created exists to reduce risk, improve performance, and create a smooth path to production. When customers succeed, we do, too. That alignment is what the model is built on.
Interested in learning how we can support your next light guide program? Reach out to our team to start the conversation.