Revolutionary Beer Paddle Designed and Manufactured in USA
BeraTek founder Gerald Beranek did a happy dance when he received a call from co-founder Ben McDougal inquiring about BeraTek’s manufacturing capabilities and design services. FliteBrite was seeking a budget friendly injection molding house and wanted to work with a local company to manufacture their beer flight paddle. A beer lover himself, Beranek was pleased to help another local company bring their product to life.
I recently sat down with Ben to ask him about the process of bringing his product idea to market.
Congratulations to you (Ben) and the team at FliteBrite for successfully launching your beer flight paddle! Tell us a little about the product.
McDougal: FliteBrite is an electronic serving system built to serve samplers that educate and entertain consumers with accurate names and engaging details. The idea came to me and my buddies as we were enjoying some tasty Des Moines brews….
What goals or product specifications did you have for the product design?
McDougal: We wanted an ergonomic and aesthetically appealing plastic paddle. These electronic beer flight paddles were thoughtfully designed and meticulously manufactured to look amazing and be cost-effective and super durable.
Why did you choose to work with BeraTek?
McDougal: We were seeking a budget friendly injection molding house and we wanted to work with a local company. We learned BeraTek offers vertically integrated services — services including design, prototyping, manufacturing and even warehousing all under one roof. The team at BeraTek wants to ensure your product is designed for manufacturing so you don’t have hidden costs down the road during production. BeraTek also introduced us to MUD (Master Device Unit) based tooling which helped us reduce our tooling investment and maintain a production part cost.
How did you launch the beer flight paddle?
McDougal: Following the completion of the CAD design, BeraTek worked with us closely to ensure we validated a series of prototypes prior to kicking off the costly part of injection molding, the mold itself. When dealing with a hardware product there are a lot of moving parts. It is important to ensure everything fits nicely to avoid delays on the back end. BeraTek was critical to our development process and really came through for us prior to diving head first into a mold.
Would you recommend BeraTek’s services to other companies looking to bring a product to market quickly and why?
McDougal: Absolutely! The dedicated team at BeraTek helped bring our ideas to life. Having a partner who could support our company throughout the entire process allowed us to be ultra efficient, while still manufacturing a cutting edge, high-quality product.
Thanks Ben. Best of luck to you and FliteBrite. I look forward to seeing the electronic beer paddle in a brewery very soon! Click her for more information on FliteBrite. To consult with BeraTek about your product idea, contact us at info@beratek-industries.com.
Originally published at www.beratekindustries.com on March 28, 2017.
