About · Cast Iron CAD
Mechanical design engineer, Founder and Technical Director of Cast Iron CAD. 280+ products developed in 16 years here, plus eleven years in industry before that. An engineer who treats AI as a tool, not a replacement.
1996 to 1999
Polymer engineering degree.
A focused specialism. That polymer background still anchors CIC's in-house plastics expertise (about 80% of plastic-product development happens in-house, not subcontracted).
1999 to 2010
Industrial engineering: nuclear, oil & gas, food & beverage.
Eleven years inside engineering companies in regulated industries, where engineering judgement, compliance and manufacturing reality were non-optional. Production-intent CAD, real DFM, supplier engagement and certification carry through everything CIC does now.
2010 to now
Cast Iron CAD: design, engineering, manufacture.
Founded to bring industrial-grade engineering discipline to SME and startup product development. 280+ products across consumer, medical-adjacent, industrial and crowdfunded categories, with named specialist partners for electronics, firmware, ID/UX and regulatory.
Access control
Control Freq Fusion range
Furniture
Bulb Pod meeting table
Medical · consumer
TabTime
Heritage · Pall years
Mary Rose artefacts, treated in the tank developed at Pall
Cast Iron CAD operates from Plus X Innovation Brighton, Sussex’s product-development and engineering co-working hub, on the Lewes Road. It gives us workshop access (SLS, CNC, laser, multiple 3D printers), member workspace, and a community of product-stage businesses.
Visiting clients are routine: Sussex, Surrey and Kent prospects within a 45-minute drive can drop by for a scoping conversation in person, prototype reviews, or just to see the bench. Every client knows who their lead engineer is (Dave); a named extended team of subcontractors adds depth where the project needs it.
Advisory and teaching
Industrial Advisory Board member for design and engineering, and delivers lectures, sessions and tutorials for the design and engineering departments. Several student projects have progressed into mentored spin-out products using the same methodology framework CIC applies commercially.
Visiting lecturer
Visiting lecturer for the LUinc programme, sessions delivered remotely. The same framework, applied to real founders building real businesses.
The ten-stage product-development framework was distilled from real Cast Iron CAD delivery, codified, and licensed back from Innovate Engineer. Same framework, two halves: Innovate Engineer covers stages 01 to 05 (idea to validation to specification); Cast Iron CAD covers stages 06 to 10 (design through engineering, manufacture and delivery), with engineering and manufacturing working together.
Every engagement opens with a placement on this diagram during the scoping conversation. That placement is itself a deliverable: you take it away whether or not we engage further. And it’s modern delivery with engineering judgement at the centre: AI accelerates the routine work (drafting, materials shortlisting, regulation-mapping), the judgement stays human.
Start a project
The scoping conversation is the front door: 30 to 45 minutes, in person at Plus X Innovation Brighton (Sussex, Surrey, Kent and the South East) or by video. The output is a written agreement.
