but what about the design aspect of it ? where is it created and by whom? any techinical guys here?
First, you need a combination of an engineering & design background, a substantial understanding of what the purpose of an
rda is and how design variations affect performance. You might even "burn the midnight oil" over what to name your creation, what the logo will be and how it will be applied.
A good bit of knowledge about metallurgy, plastics performance and even flow characteristics comes in handy as well. No one is born with this knowledge, it's all learned for the specific purpose...
or previous knowledge from a different application is applied.
For example, I have a substantial background in design and development, metallurgy and machining... and a few decades of practical flow bench development. What I don't have is - a deep familiarity with CAD, money or machine tooling. Am I able to design an RDA? Yes... can I produce one at the present time, or even have a desire to? No.
That's the design part... then there's the more costly element of manufacturing prototypes, followed by testing and modification... until you have a device ready for production. This part is often "farmed out", because the designer, although talented in their own right... may not have the knowledge and skills to actually, physically make something.
Some attys are made on a very small scale, using manual (or at best, DRO) lathes and mills... others are made in larger numbers using CNC machines. It all depends on how large a scale you can afford (or want to) to produce something. Smaller scale of manufacture = more initial costs per unit.
There are several "all in one" RDA makers... from initial design to final product, including marketing and sales. One that comes immediately to mind is the maker of the
Veritas RDA... a gentleman otherwise known as "Faceless".
He may not be expert at any one thing, but as a machinist, he has knowledge of many things... sufficient to produce and market a very unique and popular RDA. Popular enough that it's been cloned by at least 2 China companies.
