Product Design, Strategy, & Manufacturing
Inertia is a seamlessly integrated team of product design, engineering, and manufacturing experts, driven by results and obsessed with quality and customer service. We partner with product innovators to transform their dreams into thriving businesses.
Who We Serve
Inertia collaborates with clients across a variety of industries – from agriculture and food to medical and health devices to industrial, and clean tech.
Our customers share the drive to develop innovative products and recognize the value and capacity of Inertia to help them bring their ideas to reality, and into customers’ hands.
What We Do
Creating industry-defining product innovations that create new and grow existing businesses is more than solving technical problems and delivering design, engineering, and manufacturing services. You need a truly holistic approach to product development to make sure you’re solving the right problems, in the right market, for the right customer, with the right product.
For us, this has meant evolving to become more than engineering services firm, rapid prototype shop, industrial designers, or a manufacturing services company, or an innovation consultancy for that matter. We’re all of these things. And what makes working with us different to virtually all of our competitors is that we deliver these services seamlessly, under one roof as a fully integrated product development experience.
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What Our Clients Say
” The growing season waits for no one. We partnered with Inertia to be our turn-key hardware engineering and manufacturing team. In six short months they delivered a clean-sheet engineered design for our autonomous weed-picking vehicle – mechanicals, bodywork, electronic power & control systems. In just three more months, they delivered all the custom and off-the-shelf components required to build the first pilot fleet. We could not have innovated this fast without them.” Luc Labbé, CEO Nexus Robotics
Inertia. We realize the new.
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Portfolio
Innovere Medical Inc., Nexus Robotics, Just Vertical, Raz Design Inc., Clek Inc., Sparkel, Qvella Corporation, Sera4, CleanSlate UV
Autonomous Weed Picking Robot
Nexus Robotics' prototype is able to navigate and remove weeds autonomously. It uses cameras and a neural network to differentiate between weeds and crops. It is specialized for removing weeds accurately without damaging crops. It is capable of removing weeds from many different crops while operating 24 hours a day. It is able to recognize crops at all stages of growth.
Services Provided:
Product Strategy, Product Architecture, Workflow Analysis, Industrial Design, Vehicle Design, User Interface Design, Mechanical Engineering, Vibration Isolation, Finite Element Analysis, CAD Development, Electrical Engineering, PCB Design, Power Electronics, Vision System, Lighting System, Propulsion System, Robotics Manipulators, High Performance Distributed Embedded Computing System (AI support), Series Hybrid-Electric Vehicle Design, Prototype Assembly, and Mechanical Component Manufacturing & Supply, Sourcing
In-Bore MRI Infotainment System
MRI scans can be a claustrophobic, anxiety-inducing, and often boring ordeal. To solve this, Inertia worked with Innovere Medical to redefine the MRI experience with an in-bore infotainment solution.
The final product, Innovision, allows patients to watch videos with sound while receiving their MRI scan. And to add to their comfort, the machine includes memory foam comfort pillows that reduce noise and deliver clear audio. Plus, to mitigate stress during their scan, a digital display makes the bore feel larger and keeps the patient informed of their remaining time.
Services Provided:
Industrial Design, User Experience Design, User Interface Design, Workflow Analysis, Prototyping, Usability Testing, Mechanical Engineering, Packaging Design, Graphic Design, Illustrations, Instruction Manuals, Injection Mold Tooling, and Mechanical Component Manufacturing & Supply
In-Home Hydroponic Garden
The AEVA is a modern, indoor, hydroponic garden system that’s sustainable, sleek, and able to provide fresh food all year round. It has the ability to grow over 200 different plant types, and provide up to 10 lbs of fresh, pesticide-free produce on a monthly basis.
Functional innovations inside the AEVA allow it to use no soil, create zero environmental run-off, and use 95% less water than traditional agriculture. And because of its uniquely designed water and light distribution, seeds germinate faster – ensuring a good root system and better overall plant health.
All of this results in ultra-fresh vegetables with a low environmental impact and the potential to alleviate stress on food supply chains.
Services Provided:
Industrial Design, Workflow Analysis, Mechanical Engineering, Prototyping, Manufacturing, Supply Chain Management.
Rapid Blood Analyzer
The FAST-ID™ BSI System
In a matter of minutes, the Qvella blood analyzer is able to detect 90% of potentially harmful pathogens in the bloodstream that can then be isolated and treated. It is a transformative product that greatly reduces the speed at which infectious pathogens are detected in the body, and helps facilitate antimicrobial therapy much faster in critically ill patients.
This process uses Qvella’s FAST-Technology™ (Field Activated Sample Treatment), to isolate bloodstream infections. It includes preferential lysis of sample cells, rapid isolation and concentration of specific target cell types including pathogenic cells, and in-line e-Lysis™ that produces a clean, NAAT-ready lysate.
Services Provided:
Industrial Design, User Experience Design, User Interface Design, Mechanical Design of Enclosures & Structures, Electrical Design, Prototyping, Component Tooling, Manufacturing, and Supply Management
Keyless Bluetooth Padlock
The Sera4 is a bluetooth activated armored padlock, engineered for harsh environments and unforgiving weather conditions. We designed it with a 10mm boron and stainless steel shackle, chrome plating for corrosion and cut/drill resistance, long battery life, and fail-secure option to power by USB.
The best part? Users can gain real-time access to the lock with their smartphone and are protected with bank-grade digital security.
Services Provided:
Industrial Design, User Experience Design, Digital UI Design, Mechanical Engineering, Electronic Controls and Communications Design, Prototyping, Manufacturing, and Supply Chain Management
Emergency Use Resuscitator
Inertia collaborated with Dr. Dayo Olakulehinto to create a low-cost emergency use resuscitator called the VitaCaeli. Conventional mechanical ventilators can cost upwards of $30,000 each. In places where this is cost prohibitive, medical staff (and even loved ones) are often required to manually squeeze breathing bags for hours in order to resuscitate patients.
The VitaCaeli automates the process of manually squeezing a breathing bag, delivering controlled breaths consistently over time. This in turn releases medical staff to attend to other patient needs. The device requires little expertise to operate, is portable and easily deployable. VitaCaeli has a battery pack for continuous operation in power outages, disaster relief situations or in extremely remote locations.
Services Provided:
Industrial Design, User Interface Design, Workflow Analysis, Risk Management per ISO 14971, Prototyping, Medical Device Verification and Validation, Mechanical Engineering, CAD Development, and Mechanical Component Manufacturing & Supply
Low-Floor BEV Delivery Truck
Unicell approached us with a challenge to validate the stability of a new delivery truck prototype. More specifically, they wanted to know if their newest design could handle on-road driving, while demonstrating exceptional stability in real world scenarios.
Our team took this challenge, and validated the design to ensure there were no inherent flaws that could not be rectified by tuning the chassis and suspension. With no requirements to serve as a design guide, and no best-practice test procedures for trucks of this weight class and cab-forward architecture, Inertia researched and created a test plan to successfully evaluate the stability and handling capability of the vehicle.
Services Provided:
Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Body Surfacing, Mechanical Chassis Development, Kinematics Studies For Suspension Systems, Test Procedure Research, Validation Strategy, Functional Testing, Stability & Handling Testing.
Beverage Carbonator
The Spärkel is a home carbonation machine that allows users to infuse their water with delicious, fresh, and healthy ingredients – all without the need for clunky CO2 tanks. Instead, water mixes with a special formulation of high quality citric acid and sodium bicarbonate inside a sealed chamber. This generates CO2 gas that carbonates the water and squeezes natural flavours into specially engineered Spärkel bottles, made to withstand a great amount of pressure.
Services Provided:
Industrial Design, User Experience Design, User Interface Design, Workflow Analysis, Mechanical Engineering, Prototyping, Usability Testing, Durability Testing, and Manufacturing Launch Support
Mobile Vacuum Trailer
The DuroVac does the same work as two vacuum trucks, all on its own. It’s capable of moving 7 tons an hour of whatever material needs moving. And instead of leaving the job-site to be emptied like a traditional vacuum truck, the DuroVac empties directly into a conventional waste bin. This bin can then be picked up when full, and replaced with an empty one while the vacuuming continues un-interrupted.
Services Provided:
Mechanical Engineering, CAD Development, Prototyping, Manufacturing, Supply Chain Management.
Modular Infant Car Seat & Carrier
The Clek Liing is a state of the art infant car seat that sets a new standard for comfort and safety. We designed it to position a child in a semi-reclined position so that their head can easily rest, without any added strain to their undeveloped neck muscles.
The Liing includes 7 recline positions and a trusty bubble indicator that shows parents exactly where their baby needs to be to ensure the best angle for safe, open airways. Best of all, the Liing includes innovative, best-in-class safety features like a metal load leg, and a two-piece shell lined with EPP foam for enhanced side-impact protection in the event of a collision.
Services Provided:
Industrial Design, User Experience Design, Workflow Analysis, Usability Testing, Mechanical Engineering, and Prototyping
Semi-Autonomous Courier-Assist Vehicle
The demand for e-commerce parcel delivery continues to grow – and yet, most delivery vehicles are a burden to operate in urban settings. That’s why we developed Myles, a semi-autonomous collaborative robot vehicle for courier and postal applications.
With its integrated navigation sensors, the machine can autonomously drive and navigate city sidewalks while the courier is placing packages on customers’ doorsteps – expediting deliveries by allowing them to carry more than a sac full of items at once. Plus, if needed, the courier can take over operation of the vehicle themselves by using the control panel.
Services Provided:
Market Research, Product-Market Fit, Industrial Design, User Experience Design, Workflow Analysis, Mechanical Engineering, Electronic Power, Controls, and Communications Design.
IoT Product Tracking Software
MATTS is a Manufacturing Article Tracking & Tracing System – created by Inertia to help manage the quality of product development from factory to field. It’s a cloud-based software that provides our team and our clients a view of a product’s entire journey – from manufacturing to shipping.
It also tracks and organizes product returns due to component or system malfunctions, and allows the manufacturer to analyze these failures to detect specific component or quality oversight trends.
Services Provided:
User Experience Design, User Interface Design, Workflow Analysis, Overall Software Architecture, Cloud Database Design, and Front-End & Back-End Development
Reviews
the project
Product Design & Management Services for Indoor Garden Firm
"They're excellent and reliable."
the reviewer
the review
The client submitted this review online.
Please describe your company and your position there.
At Just Vertical, we design, manufacture, and grow breathtaking indoor gardens. We’re on a mission to be the world’s largest collective of farmers, all without owning a single piece of farmland. I am the Co-Founder and CEO of the company.
For what projects/services did your company hire Inertia Product Development, and what were your goals?
Industrial Design, Workflow Analysis, Design for Manufacturing (DFM), Design for Assembly (DFA), Mechanical Engineering, Prototyping, Manufacturing, Supply Chain Management.
How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?
We were initially looking for a product manufacturer, but the deciding factor was that Inertia offered a full suite of design and project management services as well as manufacturing and supply chain support.
Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.
We started with the goal of designing & manufacturing our first in-home hydroponic grow garden, the AEVA. We learned through the process that it would be more efficient to also develop our smaller version the EVE at the same time, so worked on both projects simultaneously in the end. A high-level overview of the stages:
- range of concept designs led to the development of a “looks like / feels like” prototype
- Both the exterior and interior of the product, went through a redesign for scalability and manufacturability, consolidating the number of parts and integrating several production processes
- inertia managed our tooling build and delivered a pre-production pilot run and confirmed parts met our quality requirements
- Production of our first order had it in-market by Q4 2021
- We are now scaling up volume and mass production with our second order
How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?
Approximately 10 people, ranging from Product Designers, Product Development Engineer, Program Manager, Mechanical Designers and Manufacturing Engineers
Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?
The combination of production-optimized design & process management led to:
- Eliminating expensive equipment
- 10x reduction in production time and labour costs
- 40% reduction in manufacturing space
- Over 60% reduction in cost on the optimized elements, and 20% savings in overall unit cost
- Shortened lead times
Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.
Highly effective, we had a single project manager throughout the product design and two on the manufacturing side. We received weekly project updates, which were efficient and effective. Applicable members of their team were available any time we needed them.
What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?
Their teams had a broad range of experience and backgrounds, and were highly collaborative, working together towards the end goal of creating a beautiful, manufacturable, scalable and sustainable product that our customers would feel good to have on display in their homes.
Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?
We initially had trouble justifying the cost of the design and prototype development, but ultimately received a lot of value from it, being able to showcase it to investors, and at events in advance of the official product lunch. Although they presented a number of cost / profit models, understanding the extended use of the prototypes might have helped ease our apprehension about this.
The company has eliminated expensive equipment and achieved a 10x reduction in production time and labor costs. They've also seen a 40% reduction in manufacturing space and 20% savings in overall unit cost. Intertia Product Development's workflow is highly effective; their experience is impressive.