Product design of today

PRODUCT DESIGN OF TODAY WITH NEW MATERIALS & NEW TECHNIQUES A SHORT ESSAY ON THE LATEST TRENDS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF MATERIALS AND PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES, AND THEIR EFFECTS ON THE PRODUCT DESIGN AND DETAILING

Written by: Ebru Boyac覺 Bilkent University, 2008 Course: Product Detailing Professor: Serpil Altay

In the recent years, change, development and innovation became the key words of our time, we started to hear those words more than ever in many contexts. In a world where “anything and everything is a product” (Holt 21) contemporary conditions naturally affect both product design and the items related to it: design process, material and production methods. Because of the mutual relationship between these items, while the movements, orientations and expectations in product design arouse the developments in the field of materials and production techniques, consequent changes and innovations affects product design and vice versa. Designers of the day should be aware of contemporary concepts, all the opportunities and restrictions of the day such as changing market needs, increasing costs; scientific and technological developments, innovation of new materials, progresses in production methods; environmental concerns, consumption of resources and concept of sustainability.

At the beginning of 1970s, a hole in the ozone layer was noticed; when it’s 1985 the problem was bigger than it was thought (Carver 1). This was the first serious warning of nature to awaken the conscious of humankind against the results of damages that they did during the ages. It’s followed by the negative effects of global warming, damage of ecosystems, loss of biodiversity, uncontrolled exploitation of natural sources, etc. Now, the environmental crisis is one of the most important issues in our lives and of course it strongly affects product design world too with a movement toward sustainability. The most remarkable influences of this movement reflect to the materials, which are directly related to resource use and waste, and the production techniques, which are related to energy consumption and material usage in the product design field (Dowie 32-35).

Materials are one of the most important factors shaping historical periods. Previously, there were more or less dominant materials for particular technical applications. With a general approach, it may be possible to identify 1700s with cast iron, modern period with steel and late 1900s with plastics (Salomon 1). In other words, product design was under the governance of a “mono-choice regime” in terms of material alternatives (Salomon 2). Today this approach and situation is changed with the “new techno-economic paradigm” of present time. Although there is still a winner in the competition of the materials, this is frequently a “new complementary association of materials” which is offering the best technical solutions. The variety is “both within and between the families of materials” and “the new forms

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of utilization are as varied as the objects to which they are applied”, and these result in a movement toward diversification which can be called as “hyper-choice” (Salomon 2). Today any types of materials present countless different technical solutions by their innumerable combinations, mixtures, or alloys and by the incorporation of different kinds of additives and designers of the day get the chance to reach a variety of materials they never had before.

Through the latest developments, status of the material in product design is transformed from being “typical examples of technical constraints imposed from the outside” (Salomon 1). Previously, a material was chosen by the designer for a primary property or physical characteristic that imposed itself technically upon the desired product. Today, the modular character of the material permits the prior identification of a technical need and the ex-post development of a material specifically adapted to that need resulting in a freedom of choice in design. In other words, “from an exogenous constraint on industrial design and engineering, new materials have become an endogenous production variable” (qtd. in Salomon 1).

The best example of integration of different functions in the same material is given by composite materials (Mazumdar 4-5) which are “the voluntary association of non-miscible or partly miscible materials having different structures, which combine and complement their characteristics to form a heterogeneous material presenting global properties and performances superior to those of the original constituent materials and suited to required functions” (qtd. in Salomon 3). As it is specified in the definition, composites and many other new materials offer the power of many materials in the body of a single material (Mazumdar 7-9) and reduce the dependence of design to materials (their limitation and opportunities) supporting the concept of material according to the design rather than design according to the material.

Although it’s not the period of one specific material, plastics are still the primary medium in the product design field, metals are second close (Cuffaro 78). In recent years, eco-design movements affected plastics too and bio-based, sustainable plastics were introduced.

Through the studies and technological developments, plastics are becoming more flexible, lightweight and strong as well as green. Continuously advancing plastics have “formability into almost any conceivable shape” through the developments in the production techniques and capability “to provide a whole spectrum of strength properties, especially in the most desirable areas of stiffness and bending resistance” (Rosato 198-202) and these make possible the turn of complex and detailed designs into physical reality.

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Contemporary conditions of the time such as developments in the materials, progresses in the technology, environmental concerns, and economical factors influence production techniques, and the developments in this area makes an impact on the product design.

Shortening of product life cycle, competition between firms and increasing consumption rates necessitate a more rapid manufacturing process (Hadjinicola 1131-1132). Besides, the growing variety of materials causes an increasing complexity in the production process and the solution is found in the integration of the production stages: forming rather than montage, reducing assemblage and parts of the products (Salomon 3). In addition to these, both economical and environmental concerns end up with a need of reducing material requirement, energy usage and waste and this is also encouraged the “adoption of forming technology instead of conventional cutting technology” on the production (Greis 192). Injection molding (used for the forming of plastics, ceramics, some metals like aluminium, brass etc.) is one of the most popular trends in the field of recent forming techniques. Advanced forming methods offer the opportunity to lessen the parts of final products and so the connection details to solve for designers, and to create highly clear finished, geometrically complex, detailed products (Cuffaro 36-43). Developments in the connection methods also affect the design field positively: advanced hybrid joining techniques present much more variable material combinations for designers by enabling connection of dissimilar materials (Weber 63). Tendency to reduce assemblage and so the number of parts in the final products due to save material, money and time results in the need of integration of several simultaneous functions in the material -use of new advanced materials- and the final object becomes “formally simpler, but more complex in its design, in its functions, and in the services it offers” (Salomon 3).

To sum up, we are surrounded by objects and these objects are changing constantly in a harmony with the developments in the world. Each step in the improvement of materials and production techniques removes many barriers in front of the product design. Through the new advanced materials and manufacturing methods, it is possible for the designers of the day to create products which may be the dreams of their ancestors: much more complex or simple, detailed or plain, smaller or bigger, and many more.

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Works Cited

Carver, Glenn. ‘The History Behind The Ozone Hole’. The Ozone Hole Tour. University of Cambridge. 8 April 2008. <http://www.atm.ch.cam.ac.uk/tour/part1.html>.

Cuffaro, Daniel. Process, Materials, And Measurements: All The Details Industrial Designers Need To Know But Can Never Find. Massachusetts: Rockport Publishers, Inc, 2006.

Dowie, Tracy. ‘Green Deisgn’. World Class Design to Manufacture, Vol. 1 No. 4, (1994), pp. 32-38, MCB University Press, pp. 1352-3074. 09 April 2008. <http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewPDF.jsp?Filename=html/Output/ Published/EmeraldFullTextArticle/Pdf/1090010406.pdf>.

Greis, Noel. ‘Technology Adoption, Product Design, and Process Change: A Case Study in the Machine Tool Industry’. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Vol. 42, Issue. 3, (Aug. 1995), pp: 192-202. 09 April 2008. <http://ieeexplore. ieee.org/iel1/17/9077/00403737.pdf?tp=&isnumber=&arnumber=403737> Hadjinicola, G. C. and K. R. Kumar. ‘Factors Affecting International Product Design’.

The Journal of the Operational Research Society, Vol. 48, No. 11, (Nov. 1997), pp.1131-1143. 09 April 2008. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/3010309.pdf> Holt, Steven Skov. ‘Product Culture Now’. Design Culture Now: National Design Triennal. Donald Albrecht, Ellen Lupton, and Steven Skov Holt. London: Laurence King Publishing, 2000. 21.

Mazumdar, Sanjay K. Composites Manufacturing: Materials, Product, and Process Engineering. London: CRC Press, 2002. 4-9.

Rosato, Dominick and Donald Rosato. ‘Product Design’. Plastics Engineered Product Design. 2003. Chapter 4, pp: 198-343. <http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ book/9781856174169> Path: Chapter 4: Product Design PDF. Salomon, Jean-Jacques and Francisco Sagasti, Céline Sachs-Jeantet. ‘New and Advanced Materials’. The Uncertain Quest: Science, Technology and Development. 1994.

01 April 2008. <http://www.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu09ue/uu09ue18.htm>.

Weber, Austin. ‘Welding Still Ensures High Strength Joints’. Assembly Magazine.

December 2007. pp 56-63. 8 April 2008. <http://www.assemblymag-digital.com /assemblymag/200712/?pg=59>.

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Bilkent University May 2008