Sonotu transforms affordable hearing aid production with WMG
Sonotu is dedicated to improving the quality of life for people with hearing loss in low to middle income countries such as India.
Established as a spin out from the University of Warwick by Professor Nigel Stocks, Sonotu works with top experts in UK academia and clinicians in Nepal, to successfully re-engineer, manufacture and supply affordable high-quality hearing aids to those who may not have access to them otherwise.
"Sonotu’s mission was to use advanced technology, to reduce the manufacturing cost of hearing aids, which we can then pass on to the consumer. Now we have taken control of our manufacturing, we have been able to reduce that cost by over 50%."
Nigel Stocks, Founding Director at Sonotu.
Challenge: Sonotu needed WMG’s expertise to bridge the gap from prototype to mass production
While the team at Sonotu successfully created prototype hearing aids using 3D printing, they lacked the knowledge and technical skills needed to scale up production through injection-moulding.
To move forward, Sonotu needed support from WMG on how to transition the design to market and technical expertise in mastering injection-moulding for large-scale manufacturing.
Solution: WMG experts refined, optimised, and tested the design
Funded by the West Midlands Health Tech Innovation Accelerator, a programme that supports companies in commercialising their products, WMG Technology Transfer Engineer Dr Tony Zeng worked on improving the design and manufacturability.Dr Zeng examined the key design parts to understand their functionalities and interactions with each other, enhancing the CAD models to ensure they met the necessary standards.
Using SOLIDWORKS plastic for injection-moulding simulations, Dr Zeng rigorously tested the design components. This included:
- Running simulations to determine optimal conditions such as location, temperature and pressure.
- Performing quality checks to identify potential issues like sink marks, weld lines and short shots.
- Optimising and finalising the CAD models to ensure they were suitable for injection-moulding.
Impact: The improved manufacturing-ready design, provides affordable, high-quality hearing aids
Dr Zeng’s input resulted in optimised CAD models ready for production, with clear specifications for injection-moulding settings; allowing Sonotu to manufacture and introduce its new product to the market.
“Working with WMG was quick, efficient and provided a vital sanity check for our design. As someone new to small complex injection moulded part design the intervention was beneficial to the project progress.” Martin Millson, Design Manager at Sonotu.
“WMG also provided leads to local external experts through which we could further enhance the manufacturing integrity of the design.”
The new product is set to launch initially in India, with an estimated annual market impact of 50,000 units (each unit consisting of three parts), providing middle-income users with affordable, high-quality and certified hearing aids.
“We couldn’t have done the push to market at the speed we have done without support from the accelerator programme.”
Nigel Stocks, Founding Director at Sonotu.
“It was a privilege to work on this exciting project with Professor Stocks and his team. Working through the West Midlands Health Tech Innovation Accelerator, we are helping bring innovative ideas in the healthcare sector to market providing a boost to the local economy.” Dr Tony Zeng, Technology Transfer Engineer, WMG.
The West Midlands Health Tech Innovation Accelerator is funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, in partnership with Innovate UK and the West Midlands Combined Authority.
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