King of the one-off: Victoria prototype builder brings inventions to life
Ray Brougham has a thing for those who typically, or stereotypically at least, dabble in beakers
and theories and sport wild hair and white coats. In fact, the owner of Prototype Equipment
Design relies on that select group he calls the "mad scientists."
Their imagination, theories and drive to build new and better mousetraps, heart valves and pretty
much anything else you can imagine fuels Brougham's passion for bringing things to life — not
to mention ensuring his machine shop tucked into a quiet neighbourhood in Vic West remains
humming.
"No question the coolest thing about this job is I get to deal with the mad scientists, and they are
all mad scientists, no doubt about it," Brougham said with a laugh. "The most fun is being able to
take their idea and make it manufactureable. I am no inventor, but I can look at anything
someone else has done and I think I can make it better, and I'm usually right."
Brougham's 11 year-old company, which started with a few employees and a CNC (Computer
Numerical Control) machine in his backyard, specializes in engineering prototypes for inventors
and re-engineering, improving and tweaking existing items.
He said the inventors and firms that have contracted his company's expertise to build new and
better products may come to him with schematics scrawled on cocktail napkins or in complex
blueprints. Or they want him to "reverse-engineer" an existing item.
"We are often engineering these things from scratch, and our goal is to get them out of here as
quickly as possible to save them money — that way they'll come back again," Brougham said.
"And a lot of the work is done here with the customer looking over our shoulders."
The shop, which is crammed into two industrial bays in Vic West — and itching to get a third
bay to deal with growth — boasts a small army of computer-controlled machines that cut, shape
and create the items. But this shop is very different from other machine works. Every machine
has its own computer and software and everyone working on the floor is both a programmer and
machinist.
"We work in a niche market," said Brougham. "Most places run 10,000-part orders while we are
astounded if we run a 100-part order. We usually run one or 10."
That's because they are often engineering the items for one-off projects, so most of the day may
be spent programming and creating the program to cut and shape the product and then may use
15 minutes to actually run the part through the machine.
"It's a very different market," said Brougham, who admits it's a rush to see items that often have
never existed before come to life within the shop walls.
There's a multi-tiered shelf in his office displaying a wide range of one-offs ranging from
components for underwater cameras and gamma ray detectors to parts for radio telescopes and
fasteners for Canada's submarines.
Brougham, who does work for the medical, aerospace, defence and automotive sectors, is also
branching out into the art world. He has a large chunk of jade he will be working with for an
artist.
Brougham also has an eye on reversing the trend of having products manufactured and finished
in China, and instead wants to import products to be improved in Canada. He admits that while
the quality will be much better, they cannot compete on price.
But Brougham said it's an important move to help bring back the Canadian manufacturing sector
and raise the collective skill set in this country. "We are losing that," he said. "And as long as
people are shopping at Walmart, we'll have that problem. We're in the mentality of getting it
cheaper, but we have to think local, and if you want to prosper as a community, you have to
promote what's within."
To that end, Brougham hopes the national shipbuilding contracts will go a long way to
kickstarting a rebirth of manufacturing in Canada. It may also help in establishing a marketplace
that values the skill set driving more people into this kind of work.
Brougham has 16 employees now, but has had trouble in the past finding qualified people and
has had to train on the job many of his staff.
Author: Andrew Duffy