The Challenge
A contract injection molder was quoting jobs by email. The back-and-forth took hours, sometimes days — and in a market where customers buy from whoever responds first, that lag was costing deals. Off-the-shelf quoting platforms couldn't handle the complexity of custom manufacturing: tolerances, materials, volumes, and geometries that no generic tool was built to accommodate. The firm needed instant quotes. Nothing on the market could deliver them.
What They Built
Tau9 Labs built a custom e-commerce platform from scratch, centered on a proprietary C++ 3D modeling engine that calculates manufacturing complexity and real-time pricing from uploaded part files — enabling a 7-click checkout with instant quotes and no email back-and-forth.
Tau9 Labs began by establishing why off-the-shelf quoting tools failed for contract injection molding: generic platforms couldn't account for the tolerances, materials, volumes, and geometries that define custom manufacturing pricing. The solution required a purpose-built engine. Tau9 developed a proprietary C++ 3D modeling engine that analyzes uploaded part files and calculates manufacturing complexity and cost in real time — accounting for all the variables a generic tool ignores. This engine became the core of a custom e-commerce platform built entirely from scratch. The customer experience was engineered for speed: a 7-click checkout flow takes a customer from part upload to confirmed quote with no email, no waiting, and no human quoting step. AI coding tools were used throughout development to accelerate the build. The entire platform was completed in four months. The first revenue signal arrived before the platform had been formally launched: $40,000 in the first month of operation, generated while the customer base was still being onboarded.
AI Role
Customers go from uploading a part file to receiving an instant, accurate quote in seven clicks — replacing an email process that took hours or days.
Infrastructure
• Proprietary C++ 3D modeling engine (real-time complexity and pricing calculation) • Custom e-commerce platform (order configuration and checkout) • Part file upload and parsing system • AI coding tools (used throughout development)
Integration Points
• Customer part file upload → C++ 3D modeling engine → real-time complexity and pricing analysis • Pricing output → e-commerce checkout flow → instant quote and order confirmation • Confirmed orders → manufacturing workflow (injection molder backend) • AI coding tools → development acceleration throughout build
