Wagobox

Wagobox was the idea of an independent electrician working in the Cambridge area. Years of working in the trade put him in the ideal position to spot a commercial opportunity for a simple niche product that would make his and other electricians' lives that little bit easier.

The Challenge

The challenge was to design a box to connect, manage and house electrical cables of varying thicknesses for use in lighting, power and cooker circuits. The box was also to provide features to prevent cables being pulled out once inserted. Once assembled, the box would be small enough to fit through the standard ceiling hole for a light fitting. A short lead time to manufacture was essential as the entire project was to be fully financed from personal savings.

Approach

A clear technical direction was established very quickly and we moved straight into generating 3D Solidworks CAD models. These models were then translated into SLS Rapid Prototypes to allow form and function to be tested. Further enhancements were made to optimise the design before injection-mould tooling was ordered from a local sub-contract manufacturer. A small initial production run of boxes was produced and sent to an established third party test house for validation. The CE mark was awarded and mass production commenced.

The Result

In less than four months eg technology took this project from initial brief to a fully CE-marked mass-manufactured product which is being sold from www.wagobox.com.