TECAtech looks east

A UK design company has opened a twin office in China to offer a low-cost prototyping and engineering model-making service for designers.

TECAtech is a design, engineering and prototyping company with twin offices in Sandgate, Kent and Shenzhen, China. It is launching a dedicated computer numerical controlled (CNC) model-making service, dubbed Designmodels, for designers in the UK.

‘Instead of seeing China as a threat we saw an opportunity and took the big step of opening an office over here,’ said Andy Lee, company co-founder.

‘We have been providing high-quality prototypes and models as part of our design service for years but our new service will be fast turnaround model making directly for UK designers.’

Designmodels will specialise in smaller products and parts, all hand finished and painted to a high degree of realism, with a reassurance of confidentiality and protection of intellectual property rights (IPR).

In addition to prototypes and models made directly from customers' CAD files, Designmodels will also be offering a sketch-to-part service carried out by designers in its office.