Star Receives Engineering Award from BUILD Magazine

With a team of dedicated engineers, machinists, designers and support staff, we’re honored to be named, along with our client Gate Labs, a winner of the BUILD Magazine Engineering Excellence Awards. The Engineering Excellence Awards 2017 recognizes various engineering disciplines and rewards firms and individuals for their often unheralded hard work. Star Rapid and Gate Labs were named ‘Most Innovative Access Control Manufacturer and Best Home Access Solution’ for the product development and rapid prototyping of the Gate Smart Lock.

“These awards showcase both the individuals and firms from across the engineering market who have achieved phenomenal success through their work,” said Steve Simpson, the Engineering Excellence Awards coordinator. “Congratulations are definitely in order for the deserving winners and I would just like to wish them the very best of luck for the future.”

The Gate Smart Lock is the first all-in-one solution for home access. It provides door entry with or without a key. When paired to a smartphone via the app, the camera and microphone on the lock helps the homeowner see and talk with anyone who comes to the door.

The Gate Smart Lock took three months of design iterations before the first prototype was made using Star Rapid’s services. Star Rapid and Gate Labs worked closely on the design-for-manufacturing review and the selection of materials for the prototype to ensure exceptional functionality. From that initial prototype, more than 10 different designs were tried and tested before building the tools for pressure die casting.

The smart lock needed to not only operate perfectly, but it also had to satisfy numerous aesthetic challenges to ensure it looked high-quality, robust and appealing. Gate Labs chose to work with Star Rapid because they knew the company could provide production quality finishing services while keeping manufacturing costs down.

“Having local support in the United States has been a standout. Having Zak and Kaelan as sales engineers – basically sales folk who understand engineering – means we can send them emails in our time zone and get responses quickly and then they can provide the feedback to the team in China,” said Harvey Ho, COO of Gate Labs. “Coming to see the factory has been very helpful. I came to China for the first time in January when I did a factory visit, checked out Star and their capabilities. I was really impressed by how they ran their operations, the quality control and everything else. That gave me a lot of confidence in their ability to do high-quality work.”

“One of the greatest and most exciting aspects of our industry is that you never know what your next project will be,” said Gordon Styles, president and CEO of Star Rapid. “It’s always a rush to be able to assist clients by turning a concept into a tangible product that meets their vision and expectations. Receiving the Engineering Excellence Award with a client is a true honor.”

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