The existing base plate used to mount scientific optics and spectographic equipment had to be maintained. Through the design of the project I came up with new ways of attaining the same tollerances and specifications while reducing the footprint and cost of manufacture. These changes are being implemented in the V2 redesign which will keep the new end plates and top plate created in this project.

 

One of the most interesting and challenging parts to this project is the fact that the light source and the spectrometer needs to be moveable by the customer by 90 degrees in order to change the units functionality. As well, the customer has to be able to use multiple types of spectrometers and they need to be adjustable. The light source also needs to be adjustable as different filters and band passes would be used depending on the sample being tested. This unit also needed to pass a water ingress test.

After working through the design process of sketching andintegrating technical considerations, I made a low fidelity model from foamcore and card stock in order to get a feel for the overall volume and look of the device. This also gave Wilson Analytical the chance to get a first hand look at where we were going. This also helped us to work out the best series of bends in order to get the tollerances expected by the customers.

The customer supplied me with a number of cad files to start from and I began to build the parts in Solidworks around these in stock items.

I also ran surface finishing tests on some scrap aluminium as our volumes required that we not use mass prodcution techniques for finishing. Chemical and abrasion tests were run after the parts had dried and cured. I was able to simulate a wrinkle powder coat finish using a chemically stable rubber material which can be used in the production units.

We printed ne end plates and they were finished with bondo and paint in order to mimic an aluminum machined part. Remaining parts for production prototypes were machined from ABS and painted to look like anodized aluminum. I bent the aluminum sheet stock for the top of the cases on a box break in my shop, then painted it with the aformentioned technique.

The assembled prototype case. At this point is is just a model. The electrical engineers have yet to install the components.

This gives an idea of how tight things need to be in order to fit inside the device. This image shows the current case which is actually deeper and slightly larger than the redesigned one.

I suggested putting together a packaging and oversleve in order to make the customer experience better. I took a day to select a colour scheme and desing the visual language for the packaging. Wilson Analytical decided to use the colour palate and language across their entire line of products and will implement it on all new products as well.

A single box as delivered to the customers. The only failing here is that we could not source white boxes in our required dimensions without ordering a custom run. Once production ramps up we will be ordering them to finish off the look I was going for.

The price point on these devices is quite high and production numbers will remain low. Even so, I wanted the boxes to look good on a suppliers shelving unit even if the end user would never see this many together.