Due to confidentiality requirements, we cannot specify the POP manufacturers we have worked with. However we have extensive experience with permanent displays in the following areas:

• Display types: wall systems, counter top, freezer, refrigerator, hanging, gondola mounted, shelf mounted, peg mounted
• Products dispensed: cosmetics, fragrance, drugs, medical supplies, razors, frozen food, beverage
• Dispensing methods: Peg, gravity feed, spring feed, electro-mechanical
• Manufacturing methods: Injection molding, vacuum forming, extrusion, metal forming
• Materials specified: PC, HIPS, GPS, PP, PE, steel

As a product development company, we develop many different types of products. Beginning in the late 90's, we have modified our process in certain ways to meet the unique requirements of the POP manufacturing industry.

• Fast turn-around
• Readily work with incomplete or conflicting requirements
• Smoothly integrate customer-driven changes late in the cycle
• Work independently while keeping clients updated on our progress
• Provide tooling-ready data: the mold maker can start cutting right away
• Maintain strict confidentiality and avoid conflicts of interest among POP clients
• Acquired industry-specific knowledge and experience, see

  Design , Tooling, and Manufacturing

Our experience with various products allows us to be an active participant in resolving the often conflicting requirements of a typical display job. Issues we often find ourselves balancing include:

• Aesthetics, particularly in our work on cosmetics displays
• Product presentation- not obscuring the package
• Customer experience- ease of shopping
• Consistent product feeding, by spring, gravity, or electro-mechanical
• Quality, such as good tactile feedback from snaps, and a solid feel
• Theft-deterrence, from sweep protection to full product access control
• Ease of inventory, restocking, and UPC management
• Plan-O-Gram and aisle reset capabilities
• Reducing per-facing costs and maximizing product density
• Creating or working within modular display systems
• Compatibility with products (dispensing) and store fixtures (mounting

The goal is to create a design that meets the requirements, but can also be molded using inexpensive and robust injection-mold tooling. We design to minimize tooling complexity and cost by applying techniques such as:

• Keeping parting lines flat where possible
• Minimizing the depth of tools
• Providing adequate draft for walls, ribs and shut off surfaces
• Avoiding steps in the parting line where possible
• Avoiding designs that would create thin standing metal in the tool
• Avoiding features that would require EDM burning
• Avoiding features that would require inserts in the tool
• Ensuring that trapped ribs can be machined directly using a 3-axis CNC mill
• Avoiding features that would require tool actions such as slides or lifters
• Planning "metal-safe" adjustments in the tool for snaps and other fits

We understand the circumstances under which most molded retail displays are manufactured. To keep costs down, we strive for the following:

• Keep it simple
• Design for snap fit assembly wherever possible
• Reduce the number of parts
• Try to avoid fastening methods such as screws, sonic welding or gluing
• Design parts to go together only one way
• Ensure that assembly will not require fixtures or special equipment
• Design displays that function well even with loose dimensional tolerances