DESIGN
COMMENT
Michael Paloian, Integrated Design Systems, Inc.
Design Details How many times have you seen a great concept rendering for a new product and experienced major disappointment when you saw the first production assembly based on that inspirational design? It happens frequently so you shouldn’t feel alone. There is an adage; “The devil’s in the details” which becomes much more significant as one gains experience designing and developing products. When I was much younger, I didn’t pay much attention to this advice and learned that design details is the magic which distinguishes great product design from mediocrity. All visually appealing designs share a few common traits. The number one most significant trait is simplicity. Industrial designers always try to unify many unrelated components, features, and parts into a single overall dominant form which expresses the product’s function. This can be a very challenging task, especially when a product is comprised of many parts and distinctly different components. The challenge lies in the creative expression of the product based on an overall shape which defines its function based on an appearance which brands the company’s identity. After an overall simple form has been created, it will remain somewhat boring because of its lack of details. A few great examples are flat screen TVs, cell phones, and computers. All these products are essentially flat rectangular forms. They would all be indistinguishable from one another without their specific details. The same holds true for the same product manufactured by different companies. Differentiating one flat screen TV from another is much more difficult than distinguishing one X-ray machine from another because the state of the art and number of parts. As products become simpler, your eye focuses on smaller details, which would typically go unnoticed in a more complicated assembly. Rotational molding is expanding into markets where appearance and quality are critical to a product’s market appeal. Since many of these products are expensive, consumers expect their purchase to be of high quality, highly reliable, and exceptional performance. The covers and overall structure must be molded with excellent surface finish, precision fits, and
...DISTINQUISHES GREAT PRODUCT DESIGN FROM MEDIOCRITY. near perfect alignment to one another. Parts can’t be molded with poor witness lines, rough textures, or pins holes in the surface. These are examples of design details. Part quality is dependent on the designer as well as the mold maker, molder and resin supplier. All these stakeholders must work together as a unified team with a common vision. The designer is a critical participant in this process. He or she must motivate the team to attain the highest levels of design excellence without impacting production efficiency or increasing part cost. This requires a keen understanding of the process, tooling methods, and materials, which must be accommodated in all the design details. Examples might include specifying machined tools with an etched surface texture or the specific split line for parting the mold. Another might include the details for a joint between two parts based on reasonable clearances and required radii along edges. Although this brief editorial only scratched the surface of design details, I hope it made an impact on you. The next time you develop a product, you’ll hopefully realize all the time, cost and energy invested in design goes into part detailing. The concept is only 15-20% of the overall product development or success in the market. www.rotoworldmag.com 31
