“Fuzzy Front End” is a funny term and one you rarely hear about outside of product design circles. Let’s take a few minutes and talk about what the term means and how use this stage of the product design process to refine your product vision and gather the data and feedback you need to design a better product.
Montie Design Participating in 2013 NCDBA Expo & Symposium April 9
MORRISVILLE & PINEHURST, N.C.–Innovation and commercialization firm Montie Design (www.montie.com) will be participating in the 2013 NCDBA (North Carolina Defense Business Association) Expo & Symposium April 9 at the Pinehurst Resort as an exhibitor, showcasing competencies of interest to defense industry contractors. By actively participating in this well-respected annual event, Montie Design is able to lend insight and experience to conversations among attendees on best practices essential to achieving excellence in product design. “We’re pretty active in the NCDBA community as event participants and committee members as it helps us showcase our core competencies in mechanical engineering, industrial design, engineering analysis, prototyping, and product commercialization” Montie Roland, company president, said. Continue reading “Montie Design Participating in 2013 NCDBA Expo & Symposium April 9”
Fun Stuff – EMP Resistant Box
I think its fitting that the parts for the EMP Resistant box came back on the same day as the first night of the new season of Revolution! No irony is lost there. For those of you who don’t follow Revolution, its a TV show about an EMP like device that takes down life in America as we know it.
You can see below where we have assembled the shell for the lower portion of the box.
Then we check to make sure the box is square in the fixture.
As Hannibal (A-Team) said “I love it when a plan comes together”. The fact that just about everything fit together first try without any major “Adjustments” resulted in a lot of smiles.
The next step is to make a small adjustment to a some minor parts on the bottom of the main chassis, deburr the plates, reassemble and carry to the welder.
Have a great day and enjoy Revolution tonight, as you’re wonder if you need an EMP resistant box too. I’m pretty where you can get a really nice one to keep all of your electronics safe.
Have a great evening!
Montie
Intern Update – Rachael Hughes
Hello Montie Design community! I am Rachael Hughes, a design/drafting intern here at Montie Design since January 2013. I am currently a senior at North Carolina State University in Technology, Engineering, and Design Education with a concentration in Graphic Communications.
My most recent project at Montie Design grew from a challenge from Montie to design a product for family car camping.
The Concept:
I decided to design a product or products that would keep your utensils from setting on the surfaces typical to camping, such as the picnic table or the top of your cooler. (The current design is at the bottom of this blog.)
The Design Process:
The first design was a simple, flat product that could be hung up and held cooking utensils, eating utensils, and dish towels. To hold a dishtowel, a slot could be used, but then the moisture from one towel could be transferred to the other, so I instead used a keyhole design, so that the corner of the towel could be inserted into the larger end and pinched tightly into the smaller end of the keyhole.
Version 1:
Version 1 Prototype:
The prototype for this version proved to be very crowded when all functions were used, so I went back to the drawing board (in my case, SolidWorks) and began to redesign. To alleviate the issue of crowdedness, I decided to break the product down into three pieces.
Version 2:
Cooking Utensils Rest:
Eating Utensils Rest:
Dish Towel Hanger:
The Cooking and Eating Utensils Rest idea developed into a design that could be used by hanging from a carabiner or at the picnic table like the prototypes show.
Version 2 Prototypes:
Cooking Utensils Rest:
Eating Utensils Rest:
Dish Towel Holder:
During testing these prototypes, I was able to make sure that this design could also hang from a carabiner and still efficiently hold the silverware as well.
It was during this phase that I also developed an idea for a Paper Towel Holder.
Version 2 Add-On:
Paper Towel Holder:
Using the same shape as the Dish Towel Holder, a wire could be permanently connected at one corner, ran through the paper towel roll, guided through a small notch for stability, and a loop on the end could attach right to the carabiner.
Version 2 Add-On Prototype:
The four items comprised The Clean Kitchen Set, Version 2:
The Current Design:
After consideration, the this specific Paper Towel Holder has been excluded from the set because ideation sessions with Montie yielded a completely different configuration to be pursued at a later date. The Cooking Utensils Rest, the Eating Utensils Rest, and the Dish Towel Holder, however, have continued to develop. The design of the Cooking Utensils Rest and the Eating Utensils Rest are as follows:
The final design of the Dish Towel Holder has not yet been decided on, but here are the three contenders:
Option A:
Option B:
Option C:
(If you have any suggestions, or preferences, please feel free to leave a comment for me!)
Current Status:
The Cooking Utensils Rest, Eating Utensils Rest, and all three possible versions of the Dish Towel Holder are currently being cut at a water jet cutting facility nearby. We are testing these designs in both aluminum and ABS plastic. I will update soon with pictures of the prototypes when we receive them.
Podcast: Rapid Prototyping Options
Morning,
Please join the discussion about Rapid Prototyping options that are available for us to use in building your prototypes.
Cheers,
Montie
Intern Project – Campfire Bench
coco and her assignment
I am coco, an industrial design graduate student at NCSU. I am an intern at Montie Design this winter. I am now working on the outdoor wood bench design. This bench design focuses on the customer need which has a hanger for people to put their back packs and their coat when they feel hot and a hook for people to hang on the garbage when they talk with their family member and take some snacks.
sketching
The following picture shows how the concept developed. Fist I have three different ideas about the bench and then narrow down to one idea. Secondly I started to have different styling about the concept and at last I decided the assemble method.
final design
This is the outdoor bench. In order to matches the whole environment, the design comes from the tree branch and also matches the function of it.
The higher one on the right is the hanger of the coats or backpacks. The small one on the left is hook for people to hang on the garbage bag or other paper or plastic bags. The first purpose of this bench is setting around the camping fire. So at the bottom of the bench, there is a shelf for people to store the fire wood.
