Meet our 5 new free manufacturing calculators and generators

At informal, hardware is so much more than a job: It’s our passion! As a collective of freelance hardware pros, we hold the skill sets to get any hardware product from rough idea to mass-manufactured and marketed physical product. Our knowledge base uniquely positions us to have inside knowledge of what could help the community we care so deeply about. This is why we’ve been working hard over the past couple of years to build up our resources library, freely available to everyone! We think of it as our love letter to the community.

To date, our free offerings include:

• The informal Hardware Handbook is packed with a wide array of knowledge covering the major phases in your product development cycle.
• The CMF Database features a growing number of products you can browse, click on, and view the color, material, and finish specs of.
• The Mechanical Engineering Cheatsheet, created as a collab with Hardware FYI, is a great resource to have at your fingertips when you need quick answers to the most common ME questions.
• The informal Design Puck is a tool for understanding and manufacturing injection-molded parts.
• The informal Manufacturing Database, MFG-DB, an easy way to help you select the best method based on your specific variables, including material, geometry, design confidence, appearance, speed, tooling/setup costs and part costs.
• The Hardware Resource Database, hardware-db, is our centralized, crowdsourced hub of top-tier resources for the hardware world.

But wait, there’s more!

We’re excited to announce that we just added FIVE new tools to the hardware-db! Below are links, short descriptions, and how-to videos for each tool.

Multi-Vendor Cost Calculator

Compare manufacturing costs from multiple vendors, analyze pricing tiers, and understand cost trends for your product components. This tool is very helpful for getting apples-to-apples quotes from vendors. It can be used to compare the same or different processes too. For example, injection molding has a tooling cost, but 3D printing doesn’t, and this tool takes that into account.  It also recommends when to change vendors and includes factors like startup fees and tariffs.

MSRP & Cost Calculator

This flexible tool helps you determine your total costs per unit and suggested retail price. You can add in costs per unit, per order, per X pieces, or a percentage.

Serial Number Generator

Create and export unique serial numbers for your products or services with this tool. It can generate numeric and alphanumeric values, two random words, specific lengths, and more. The built-in “naughty words list” helps you avoid any unintended issues. Easily export your results as a CSV file.

Barcode & QR Code Generator

Import a CSV file, choose your options, and generate your codes with this easy-to-use tool. It can show or hide serial numbers and set size, and you can export results as a PDF or zip file.

Lead Time & Critical Path Calculator

This tool is designed to be a stripped-down Gantt chart to help you figure out all of the the factors that go into your hardware development timeline. Input your project items, set their durations and dependencies to visualize the timeline, and identify the critical path.

informal is a freelance collective for the most talented independent professionals in hardware and hardtech. Whether you’re looking for a single contractor, a full-time employee, or an entire team of professionals to work on everything from product development to go-to-market, informal has the perfect collection of people for the job.