Industrial

Housing Design
for your
Electronics
A Case Study: from concept to product
Dr. Jrgen Kienhfer
CEO Wireless Cables Inc.
www.aircable.net
Presentation at the
www.makersfactory.com
December 2, 2011
Wireless Cables Inc.
WCI makes intelligent, long range
Bluetooth modules
WCI designs products using these modules

Housing Designs
over the years
Workflow Housing Design
Product design idea
o how does your final product look like
o how is it used
Electronic parts determine
size and shape

Workflow
1. electronics modeling
2. housing concept
3. design for the mold
4. prototype before production
1: Electronic Modeling
hold electronic in place
design actuators
ergonomics and use case
lights or displays
sensors and power connectors

example: AIRcable Serial5X

2: Housing Concept
Simple: a square box with holes

multi part design: A-side, B-side: d-cide
joining parts
hinges
thickness
shrinkage and other blemishes

Joining Two Parts
Screws
Glue
Hooks and Snaps
Friction
Ultrasonic Welding
3: Design to the Mold
What is a Mold?
It's about costs:
simple straight pull mold design
if you have to: side action molds
first prototype
files to manufacturing

An Injection Molding Machine
watch the video
Injection Mold Cavity and Core
Click image to see the
machine producing this
part
OME International Injection Molding, with permission
Watch a bucket being formed...
Design for the Mold
DRAFTING
0.5
0
draft is minimum
2
0
is safe, 3
0
for light
texture, 5
0
for heavy texture
reduce stress to take out
UNDERCUTS
molds are made out of two
pieces: A-side and B-side
side action
COSTS MONEY!(a lot)
UNDERCUT (cont.)
Example: AIRcable Serial5X
snap together design
no undercuts
matched mating parts
uniform thickness
Polycarbonate
transparency
Design Process with Solidworks
start with a solid block


add hooks and
grooves


shell the part to get uniform
thickness


cut holes for the hooks
drafting for snap action


cut holder for the connector
and the screws

fillet for easy mold
pull out
Design Process with Blender
??? (to be honest...)

wire frame, give thickness, cloth design
Design Process "AIRcable USB5"
solid block with
domed feature
cut and shelled
final two part housing
with friction fit
Materials: most often used
ABS
o cheap, easy to mold, paintable
Polycarbonate (PC)
o does not break, strong, UV resistent
o transparent and glass clear
33% glass filled Nylon
o strongest material, solvent resistant
o glass fiber makes it heat resistant as well
o shrinks quite a bit during molding
o use for sensors and valves

Decide early: the mold is made for ONE material
Prototype
Ergonomic housing design is a challenge!
you must make a prototype to test

electronic fits, actuators work, lights, display
usability, show to others
ease of assembly, time for workers

Quick prototypes: SLA (UV cureable resin), SLS
(Selective Laser Singering), FDM (Fused deposit modeling),
Polyjet (Photopolymer), CNC (Machining)
4: Finishing
Texture
created via sand blast of the mold or polish
Painting
ABS can easily be spraypainted
Printing
logos via silk screen print, epoxy
Anodize
aluminum gets scratch resistance and color
Stickers
make indent for sticker
5: Assembly
Putting it all together:

Packaging design
Paper inset
UPC bar code
FCC and other certifications (UL, CE, ...)

Summary
Topics covered
electronics design
model the inside first
housing design concept
use collision detection
make prototype and test design
tooling, prototype run
manufacturing
packaging
sell your product on the web
Resources
Plastic Wiki
http://www.plastics.inwiki.org
Prospector Plastics Datasheet
http://www.ides.com
Material Properties and Injection
Molding, calculate the details
http://www.efunda.com
Materials
http://www.matweb.com

Rapid Injection Molding
http://www.protomold.com
http://www.quickparts.com
Polyjet prototyping C-Ideas
http://www.buildparts.com
Barcodes
http://www.nationwidebarcode.com
CAD Software
http://www.solidworks.com
http://www.3dcontentcentral.com
http://www.blender.org
http://www.123dapp.com
Online Machine Shop
http://www.emachineshop.com

Commercial Injection Molding
http://www.ome-mould.com

Questions?






or email me:
juergen@aircable.net

this presentation is available online: http://goo.gl/Qq1Mj