Product Development for Philadelphia Founders, From North Jersey
Design, prototyping, and manufacturing hand-off for Philadelphia inventors and hardware founders, done by mechanical engineers in North Jersey. You keep 100% of the IP. Prototypes ship to you; reviews happen on video.
Who develops products for Philadelphia founders?
RMA Engineering develops products for Philadelphia founders remotely from North Jersey: mechanical engineers on staff design the product, build the prototypes in our own workshop, and hand off to manufacturing, while you review every stage on video calls and hold every prototype in your hands a few days after it is built. We have done this for more than ten years, hold a BBB A+ rating, and answer every inquiry within 12 hours.
The workshop is closed to visitors on purpose. Nobody walks past your prototype on a shop tour, because there are no shop tours, and that policy is part of how client IP stays protected. It also means working with a Philadelphia founder is the same engagement as working with one across the river: drawings, CAD, and prototypes move to you; you do not have to move to them.
Why do Philadelphia inventors work with an engineering firm in North Jersey?
Because North Jersey is the nearest place with mechanical engineers, a prototyping workshop, and manufacturing hand-off under one roof that still bills hourly and hands over the IP. Philadelphia sits about 90 minutes down the Turnpike from us, which is close enough that a prototype ships next-day and far enough that we run the engagement the way we run every engagement: on video, with files and parts moving to you. Philadelphia founders come to us most often with consumer products, kitchen and home goods, and early medical-adjacent devices that need real engineering before a factory will quote them.
What kinds of Philadelphia products fit RMA?
Physical products with mechanical content: housings, mechanisms, assemblies, anything that will be molded, machined, or cast. First-time inventors with a sketch or an AI render, hardware startups with a prototype that needs to become a manufacturable design, and small brands adding a physical product line. Products that are primarily electronics or software are better served by a firm built for that; we will say so on the first call.
What does RMA deliver?
Every project ends with files you own: 3D CAD in STEP and native formats, 2D drawings with dimensions, tolerances, materials, and finishes, a bill of materials, manufacturing specifications, and assembly instructions, plus the physical prototypes built along the way. Fees are hourly and per deliverable; they start around $2,000, and basic products typically run $6,000–15,000 through design and prototyping to a manufacturing-ready package. No royalties, no equity, no licensing back to us.
How does remote product development from North Jersey actually work?
Four steps, none of which require a visit.
- Free 30-Minute Design Review. A video call with an engineer. Bring the sketch, the render, or the prototype you have. You leave with a scoped design stage and a fee estimate.
- Design. CAD reviews on screen-share, drawings delivered as PDFs, decisions recorded in writing. Typical design stage: 4–12 weeks.
- Prototyping. Built in our workshop, shipped to you. Ground shipping from North Jersey reaches Philadelphia the next business day, and a prototype revision can be in your hands within a day of leaving the bench. Proof-of-concept builds run $100–2,000; production-intent builds $5,000–30,000+.
- Manufacturing hand-off. A production-ready package that any molder or machine shop can quote, with tooling ($5,000–50,000) and first runs (8–16 weeks) planned with you, domestic or overseas.
Not ready for a call? Run your idea through the free Reality Check first.
What do Philadelphia founders ask us first?
Philadelphia founders start the same way everyone does: a Free 30-Minute Design Review with an engineer, on video, this week. Bring what you have.