Plastics engineering intelligence · Since 1984
Every plastic-part failure has happened before. We kept the record.
For 41 years ETS has been called in when parts warped, cracked, crept or failed in court. That record, from the author of Designing Plastic Parts for Assembly, now reaches your engineers four ways: in the seminar room, in a senior-engineer review, in cited AI answers, and in the software they design with. The industry’s memory, on your next part, before steel is cut.
Clients we support
41 years · 500+ OEM and Tier-1 client organizations · 19,800+ engineers trained
Attendee comments
In their words · seminar attendees
The failure ledger · 41 years of production data
Why Your CAD Lies to You
Walls look fine in CAD — and warp in the mold. Draft looks adequate — and the part galls on ejection. Every line below is a mistake someone already paid for. This is what each one costs once steel is cut.
- In design review: the fix is a CAD edit.
- After steel is cut: $10K–$75K per issue in the ledger below.
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01
Wall thickness
Warp, voids, major tool rework or re-cut
$25K–$75KCaught in review -
02
Undercut design
Added slides or lifters after steel is cut
$20K–$60KCaught in review -
03
Draft angle
Ejection drag, galling, surface defects
$15K–$50KCaught in review -
04
Rib & boss proportions
Sink marks, structural failure
$15K–$40KCaught in review -
05
Gate location
Flow marks and weld lines in the wrong place
$10K–$30KCaught in review
ChatETS · The engineering answer engine
Ask the question that is blocking your design. Get the answer — and the source.
Generic chatbots have opinions. ChatETS has 41 years of documented production outcomes behind it — grounded in the ETS corpus and in your specs, with the source for every claim. The calculators engineers actually use are built in: snap-fit, creep, fatigue, living hinge, DFM checks.
- Cited, not confident. Every answer shows where it came from.
- Tools inside the chat. Run the calculation, don’t just read about it.
- Your data stays yours. Per-organization isolation; private deployment available.
Free to start. No credit card.
One memory · four ways to use it
Taught in a room. Proven on your part. Answered in seconds. Built into your tools.
Tool vendors sell you another tool. ETS sells what four decades of production failures taught us, packaged so every engineer on your team can use it, check it and trust it.
Seminars & Academy
Three days with the textbook author, or a 90-course catalog as private cohorts and on-site programs.
See seminars → 02 · ProveSenior engineers
Fixed-price design reviews, retainers with a 4-hour critical response, and expert-witness testimony.
Get a review → 03 · AskChatETS
The engineering answer engine that cites its source, with snap-fit, creep, fatigue and DFM calculators inside the chat.
Try ChatETS → 04 · BuildETS Build & platform
Design, analysis and compliance in one workspace, on a verified physics engine and a governed, signed AI platform.
Explore →The instruments · live
Three instruments from the suite. Run them on your own numbers.
Small, honest versions of what runs inside ChatETS and ETS Build: textbook equations and molding guidelines, live in your browser. Nothing you enter leaves this page.
A snap-fit arm is a cantilever. Check it before the steel is cut.
Change the length, thickness, width, load or resin. Deflection, stress, strain and stiffness update from the closed-form cantilever equations. The physics engine carries this kind of checkable calculation across 164+ modules in 24+ engineering domains, and routes a plain-language question to the right one.
Explore the physics engine →- Tip deflection
- 2.17 mm
- Root stress
- 37.5 MPa
- Surface strain
- 1.63 %
- Stiffness
- 4.60 N/mm
Small-deflection beam theory: δ = PL³/3EI and σ = 6PL/bt². Snap-fits are designed on strain, so compare it with the permissible strain for your grade. These are typical values; your datasheet and service temperature govern.
Four proportions that decide whether a rib molds cleanly.
Wall, rib thickness, rib height and draft are the lines the failure ledger keeps returning to. ETS Build applies DFM/DFA rules for seven processes, with an 18-defect troubleshooting matrix, to the whole part. This is four of those rules on one feature.
Explore ETS Build →- WallInside the common 1–4 mm window
- Rib thicknessHeavy rib: sink risk on the show surface
- Rib heightWithin about 3× the wall
- DraftUnder 0.5°: ejection drag, scuffing and galling
General guidelines for unfilled thermoplastics. The resin, the process and the feature all move these limits. Making that call is what a design review is for.
Twelve resin families. Each one fails in its own way.
Pick a family for the short version. ChatETS gives the long one, with the source attached to every claim, and it can work from your own datasheets and test reports.
Ask ChatETS free →Polyamide 66
ClassSemi-crystalline
Used forUnderhood brackets, connectors, gears
Watch forAbsorbs moisture: stiffness drops and dimensions grow once conditioned, so design to conditioned values
General behavior of each family. Grades within a family differ widely, and ChatETS answers against the grade you name.
The people behind the products
Someone already paid for the mistake you’re about to make. We remember how it ended.
- 1984The practiceBuilt on the production floor.
- 1994The bookNow in its 10th edition.
- 1997The courtroomOver $186M in settlements.
- 19,800+The roomEngineers at 500+ organizations.
- 2026The platformThe memory, programmable.
Polymer failure science to EV, crash, compliance and AI enablement. Open enrollment, private cohort or on-site.
Browse the catalog → Expert network One call, multi-expert teamsDesign, materials science, simulation, crashworthiness and EV systems, assembled for your problem.
Assemble a team → Expert witness $186M+ in settlementsConflict check first. Availability, CV and fee schedule within one business day.
Request a conflict check →Where to start
The failures have already been paid for. Stop paying for them again.
Pick the path that matches your risk today. The rest is there when you need it.
Ask ChatETS
The question blocking your design, answered with a source. No credit card.
Launch the answer engine → 02 · Oct 20–22 · Grand RapidsReserve a seminar seat
Three days with the textbook author from $1,895, a fraction of one five-figure rework.
Reserve my seat → 03 · Quote in 24 hoursGet a design review
A senior engineer scores your part before tooling. Fixed price from $3,500.
Get my quote →- NDA on request — signed before we look at anything you send.
- Your data stays yours — per-organization isolation; private deployment available.
- One business day — a senior engineer replies, not a sales sequence.
- No bait-and-switch — scope, timeline and quote before work begins.