Leo ​​began as an idea during a master program in Physics about batter degradation, by Jardo Stammeshaus, who won the VU Talent of the Year Award in 2020. The idea was​​​ to create​ a compact device that extends battery life through smarter charging. ​​After the electronics were developed by Jardo and a team at the VU university Amsterdam, and years of research and the winning of many awards, Leo was starting to get traction. And that is where Pilotfish jumped in: the product now needed a clean design, ​​​​​​with a clear Design for Manufacturing mindset. ​​Pilotfish and Liion Power began with the sketching of different designs of the casing of Leo, and what feel and look we wanted to bring to the end customer.​​​​ ​​ Although we were involved throughout the​ visual​ ​design​​ ​ journey, the manufacturing phase stands out on its own. It shows how DFM-driven development leads to stable, predictable production and turns a start-up concept into a fully packaged product ready for the market.

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Liion Power selected Pilotfish as their manufacturing partner because they needed a complete solution: plastics, electronics, assembly, quality control​ ​ and delivery at the factory door. Our long-standing supplier relationships and deep involvement in product ​design​​ ​ enabled a controlled and transparent transition into production.  A defining​ design​ feature of Leo is the soft light that shines through its otherwise black enclosure. To achieve this consistently, we worked closely with our plastics supplier to fine-tune a mix of black, blue and red colour masters in transparent PC. Even slight adjustments changed the translucency, so we iterated the ratios until the enclosure reached the right balance of opacity and controlled light transmission. As Maeva Schaller, Head of Operations at Pilotfish, explained: “Every gram of black powder changed the way the plastic behaved.” These controlled iterations were essential before committing mass tooling. The 300-unit pilot batch confirmed our process settings and revealed the need to scale test capacity. Additional test jigs were introduced immediately to avoid delays in mass production.