Case study · Bao'an

Ear-cap accessory: first sample failed the fit gate, second round cleared it

A wearable silicone part can look fine on the bench and still miss the mating product. This Swiss job treated the first fail as the point of sampling, not a scandal.

Published 14 Sep 2026 · WYD Silicone, Bao'an

Market

Switzerland

Envelope

~64 x 36 mm

Wall

4 mm

Sealing lip

1 mm

Shore / color

A 30 black

Sample loop

Fail → second set OK

No wearable photos on this URL. Brand and drawing stills were not cleared; we will not paste a random earbud sleeve. What we can publish: STEP as the manufacturing reference (STL for view only), black Shore A 30, about 64 x 36 mm, 4 mm wall, 1 mm sealing lip, 2 x 2 mm hollow chamber, radial clearance noted at 1.8-2.0 mm. First molded set was defective. Tooling/process was corrected. Second set passed visual and fit.

Fit features beat the silhouette

The accessory had to stretch, seat, and seal on a real product. Lip thickness, chamber, local wall, flash on the fit face, and Shore A 30 all mattered more than the outer outline. STEP kept controlled faces for those lips; STL alone is a poor source for a 1 mm seal.

First-article fail is why you sample. Shipping the first flashy set as “production” would have locked the wrong lip into steel. We do not invent a cycle life or leak-test number that is not in the archive.

What to send for a similar accessory

  1. STEP of the silicone part plus the mating product envelope if you can share it
  2. Lip / chamber / clearance notes, Shore and color
  3. Which faces are flash-critical
  4. First-article qty and what “fit pass” means on your bench

FAQ

Why no photo?

NDA and no cleared still. An unrelated wearable image would be a fake proof.

Is Shore A 30 standard for ear accessories?

It was this customer's fit target. Copying it onto another lip geometry is a new validation.

STL enough?

Not for a 1 mm sealing lip. Use STEP as the tool reference.

Related: electronics & wearables · product development · OEM sample-before-print · send the RFQ pack.

Send STEP plus how the part actually seats

If the first sample fails fit, say so. That is the cheap loop. Repeating a bad lip in production is the expensive one.