VG ENGINEERING

Mechanical development partner · Buchs SG, Switzerland

From concept
to manufacturing.

We develop mechanical products with you, from the first sketch to parts coming off the line. Start at any stage. We carry the engineering through to production.

Start a project See the work

Hilti · BMW MINI · VAT · MEng Edinburgh

Hand sketch of a seabed drilling rover and its deployment sequence
SketchSeabed rover
CAD render of the Darwin II three-flap airbrake
CADDarwin II airbrake
3D-printed red prototype of the Oyster microfibre filter
PrototypeOyster filter

Why we build

Good ideas deserve to be built right.

It started with curiosity: taking bikes and machines apart to understand how they work, and asking how everyday things could work better. That question never left.

Today we see good ideas die because the people behind them can't reach the engineering they need or lack of expertise. We see products designed to be thrown away, and development so slow and impersonal that nobody owns the result. We think engineering can do better. Done right, it makes everyday life better.

  • Ideas deserve to exist.No good idea should die because its owner can't access or afford engineering. That's why we offer co-ownership.
  • Make it worth buying.A product has to earn its place: real value, a long life, or a price low enough to open new applications and reach people who couldn't afford it before.
  • Engineering is a craft.Elegant simplicity, every number justified, built and tested, honest about limits.
  • Skin in the game.We build what we believe in, and we share the risk and the upside.

Better everyday life, one well-built product at a time.

Process

Where is your product right now?

Start wherever you are. We take it from there to production.

Hand sketch of a house cross-section with a passive convective cooling loop
Concept sketch · passive-cooling house

You have an idea or a rough sketch.

We do
Explore 3–4 genuinely different concepts, size them from first principles, and check feasibility and cost early.
You get
One chosen direction, with the reasoning and the risks on paper.

Selected work · Team project

Oyster: from CAD to a tested prototype.

A filter that mounts inside a washing machine and spins to multiply its filter area. Team project of five: Alejandro owned the FEA, drive sizing, mesh selection and the prototype build.

Exploded CAD assembly of the Oyster filter
01 · Exploded assemblyMotor, housing, bearing cap, mesh cylinder and propeller insert on one shaft axis.
Final CAD render of the Oyster filter in its housing
02 · Final CADPacks into the dead space behind the machine's service hatch.
Fatigue FEA result of the filter cage with a colour scale
03 · Fatigue FEAThe analysis flagged the shaft crossing as the low-life region.
Four photos of the 3D-printed Oyster prototype and its test rig
04 · Prototype & testThe printed shaft later broke exactly where the FEA predicted.
1 / 4
75.7 %fibre capture in the first prototype test
25 µmnylon filter mesh, chosen on pore size, strength and recyclability
12–18 Vlow-cost DC drive, sized from worst-case start-up torque

More projects

All projects →
Flight hardwareDarwin II airbrake Test engineeringFive chalk test rigs Concept & FMEASeabed drilling rover Thermal conceptTermite-mound cooling

Working together

Four ways to work together.

Who we work withSMEs without an R&D teamHardware startupsInventorsEngineering teams that need capacity

Phased project

Concept, design, prototype, production. Each phase is quoted on its own, with a go/no-go before the next, so you only commit to what has earned it.

Start at any stage

Already have a concept, a CAD model or a prototype? We pick it up where it is: design, DFM, testing or industrialisation.

Ongoing partnership

Your part-time development team, on a monthly basis. For companies that need mechanical engineering regularly, but not a full-time hire.

Co-ownership

A lower fee in exchange for a royalty per unit or a share in the product. Case by case.

How it works ↓

Every project is quoted individually. A mutual NDA is available from the first conversation, and IP terms are agreed in writing before work starts.

Co-ownership

Partner, not just a supplier.

Some products are worth more than a fee. When we believe in yours, we can take part of our payment as a share of its success. We carry the risk with you, and share the upside.

Royalty per unitPreferred
A reduced fee plus a small percentage of every unit sold. Simple to set up, and it rewards a product that sells.
Equity
A reduced fee in exchange for a share of the product or the company. Suits startups with more upside than cash.
How it's decided
Case by case, after a first look at the product. Everything is agreed in writing before work starts.

About

Alejandro Vargas Gonzalez

Mechanical engineer in Buchs SG, Switzerland. About six years across three industries: joining technology at Hilti, automotive at BMW MINI, and precision vacuum hardware at VAT. That spread is useful, because the answer to your problem often already exists in an industry you don't watch.

We like hard problems, and we don't trust the obvious answer just because it's the one everyone reaches for.

Alejandro started VG Engineering to build products, not reports: to take an idea all the way to parts in production, alongside clients who want a partner in it.

  • NowMechanical development engineer, VAT Group: vacuum valves for semiconductor tools
  • BeforeDevelopment engineer, Hilti (joining & anchor technology) · Parts quality, BMW MINI Oxford
  • EducationMEng (Hons) Mechanical Engineering, University of Edinburgh
  • ToolboxConcept design · ISO GPS / GD&T · ANSYS · Siemens NX, SolidWorks · Rapid prototyping & 3D-printed functional models · DFM & root-cause analysis
  • LanguagesSpanish · English

Start a project

Have a product to build?

Tell us what it is and where it stands today. We'll tell you honestly how we can help, and which way of working fits.

alejandro@vgengineering.ch
Helpful to includeWhat it doesWhere it standsTarget cost & volumeTimeline