Case Study: AMPY accelerates wearable charger prototyping with Protolabs injection molding

Injection-molded bobbins from Protolabs used inside AMPY's wearable kinetic energy charger

AMPY, a Chicago-based start-up founded by engineering students, faced the challenge of prototyping a compact, wearable kinetic energy charger for mobile devices that was both small enough to carry and powerful enough to be useful. They needed a manufacturing solution to move beyond the limitations of 3D printing for creating functional internal components for their pilot run and initial customer deliveries. They received assistance from the vendor Protolabs through a Cool Idea Award.

Protolabs provided injection-molding services to produce the specialized plastic bobbins used inside the AMPY device. This solution allowed AMPY to manufacture a low-volume production run of high-quality, durable parts, which were used for extensive consumer testing and as perks for their crowdfunding backers. This support from Protolabs was a key step in AMPY's development process, helping them advance from early prototypes toward their full market release.

AMPY

Tejas Shastry

Chief Executive Officer