Case

From strategy to industrialisation with Acreto

The diseases mosquitoes spread kill more than two million people every year. It’s been a long time since mosquitoes spread serious diseases in Sweden, though. Here, they’re mostly just irritating and ruin summer evenings. Gothenburg-based Acreto wants to change this with effective and sustainable products for mosquito control. When they decided to develop their first proprietary product, they turned to Semcon.

CustomerAcreto

IndustryIndustry

CompetencesProduct DevelopmentEcodesignProject ManagementMechanical Engineering

Background

Acreto is a leader in mosquito control in the Nordics and distributes several different products for both indoor and outdoor use. In the past, they’ve focused on marketing and selling other companies’ products, which they’ve done successfully. The marketing concept myggjavlar.se has helped to reach a wide audience along with a product portfolio that has something for everyone. When Acreto decided to develop their first proprietary supplementary mosquito product, they realized they needed help. A multidisciplinary team from Semcon Studios was brought in and functions as Acreto’s own R&D department – all to ensure complete product development from strategy to industrialisation.

User needs in focus

Designing and developing a good product is largely about understanding how it is used. Focusing on the users and their needs and wishes increases the chances of hitting the target with design and functionality. Semcon therefore always starts out from the user’s perspective, and this is also how the work began with Acreto’s supplementary mosquito product. The goal was to create a compact variant that was easy to bring with you but also kept the mosquitoes at a distance. Early in the process, it became clear that there was a user need for two different products.

Eco-design and life cycle analyses

Acreto also gave Semcon the assignment of making the new products as sustainable as possible. Semcon’s sustainability experts were brought in to ensure that the team chose energy-efficient components, reusable plastics and performed life cycle analyses. The result is a sustainable mosquito product for indoor use.

“We are very happy with the collaboration,” says Westerlund. “I want to particularly highlight the flexibility and Semcon’s ability to quickly bring in the skills and expertise needed. Projects like these are not always entirely predictable, so it’s important to make adaptations and of course to have a good process and communication. And Semcon has delivered on that.”

The products are made of environmentally friendly plastic with a self-regulating PTC heating element, and ceramic has been replaced with recyclable aluminium. This helps, for example, to achieve quicker heating and reduced energy consumption, while optimizing manufacturing and recycling for resource efficiency and minimal climate footprint. The new products keep an area of about 15 m2 around the product sustainably mosquito-free.

Testing, testing

Thanks to Semcon’s ability to perform the testing themselves, the new products could be tested continuously, with both iterative simulations and physical tests. The products are no larger than a mobile phone charger and can be carried around in a pocket. In Semcon’s lab, the team has tested the refill function, performed heating tests and evaluated different form factors. One example of the latter concerns ensuring that the variant placed in a wall socket will not prevent other devices from being plugged into adjacent sockets. “We love projects like this one with Acreto, where we get to collaborate with the customer from concept to final product, including testing and certification. With our broad expertise, we can deliver a smooth and efficient end-to-end solution. At Semcon Studios, we offer everything under one roof—a one-stop-shop for the entire product development process that is truly unbeatable”, says Ali Abid, Project Manager & Operational Lead for Semcon Studios projects.