Drive design cuts assembly costs
An
Industrial Design Consultancy (IDC) product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Aug 1, 2002
The job of an industrial design company is often to challenge traditional thinking and existing design methodology.
The job of an industrial design company is often to challenge traditional thinking and existing design methodology.
This was the case when Datchet based Industrial Design Consultancy was asked to develop a new range of motor control units by Control Techniques, a South Wales based company which specialises in power electronics.
The IDC brief was to design and develop motor control units in four different frame sizes, to conform to UL type 1 safety regulations, to target the important American market.
In addition to having to be subjected to severe drop tests, and additional requirement was for the unit to withstand dripping water without failing.
Even though the product is for industrial use, CT required that the component was well styled and be easy to use by operators.
The design by IDC ensured that the range shared a common interface and was clear and easy to use.
An important consideration with the new design was the heat sink on which the circuitry was mounted.
By challenging the design brief and initial thinking IDC developed a high-pressure die-casting for the frame with an injection-moulded enclosure produced in two parts with snap assembly.
The design produced by IDC achieved the technical parameters and made the unit less expensive and faster to assemble than the previous units.
Die casting was chosen as it gave increased design flexibility allowing many features to be built into the part and making it the main building block or backbone of the project.
By considering the overall lifetime unit quantities and costs IDC was able to recommend production solutions that reduced component count and eliminated many fixings thereby reducing assembly time and unit cost.
"IDC challenged our original design brief and produced an alternative design concept", said CT executive vp-technology, Professor Bill Drury, "The unit they produced was visually pleasing, met the technical requirements and was more cost effective over the product lifetime".
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