Successful Silicon Valley tech startups have high aspirations, tight deadlines and limited resources. For over two years now, ACT has proven its agility in meeting the dynamic needs for one such company in a successful company partnership.
Smart Wires Inc., an innovative technology company located in the San Francisco Bay Area, has developed a revolutionary product, the Power Router™, which adjusts the flow of power across grid lines by controlling impedance levels. This control enables power companies to push or pull power as required, offering customers a more reliable source of electricity. The product utilizes power-electronics devices which need well-engineered thermal-management solutions for enhancing reliability. That’s where ACT came in.
In the beginning, the tech startup brought in 50 experts in some 30 different disciplines from all over the world for an on-site brainstorming session to review the many features of their initial design. ACT was invited as a thermal management expert. From the first brainstorming session, ACT’s role grew. ACT’s engineers took responsibility for both thermal and mechanical design and the manufacturing of critical components. With ACT’s support, the Smart Wires Product Development team completed 11 different prototype designs in just over 18 months. ACT has since delivered over 50 prototypes of the final design. A significant portion of ACT’s work was performed and completed on site at Smart Wires. ACT engineers became true members of the team, even surfing and eating Ethiopian food with Smart Wires engineers. It truly became a successful company partnership.
According to Haroon Inam, Chief Technology Officer at Smart Wires, “We knew in the early development stages that we would need to address thermal issues and it would require a partner with industry-leading thermal-management engineering expertise. Within days of our request, ACT sent out an engineering team to help us pinpoint any thermal issues. They then designed and delivered effective solutions and have become a key part of our team. ACT has been a highly reliable and responsive partner.”
According to Devin Pellicone, Lead Engineer for ACT, “Working with the Smart Wires team has been an exciting challenge for us. They set, and met ambitious deadlines and goals that required us to rapidly develop innovative thermal solutions. It’s been very rewarding to help them position themselves for great commercial success. We believe this work has established a strong collaboration that will only get stronger.”
