One of the classes required for all engineers is called Prodcut Design. The highlight of the course is you get to work with a company to create a "desk widget" for them. The desk widget can be anything from a office supply storage solution, to a paperweight, or even just a fun little toy. 

 

The company we chose to work with was Saint Gobain, a global leader in construction, packaging, and material development and distribution. It is a French company formed in 1665 as a glass manufacturer and now is located in over 60 countries around the world. We would be working with their High Performance subtrates division based out of Massachusetts, USA. After meeting with our rep to introduce ourselves and the project as well as obtain some basic information about their division, we came up with a few ideas for the direction we could take the widget. 

 

One of the aspects that drew our attention immediately was the company's logo. Since the widget must represent the company in some fashion, it was a given that the logo be incorporated somehow into the design. 

 

While speaking to our contact, she told us about their work on developing a new type of saphhire wafer that could be used for electronic applications. Her and the rest of the team was really drawn to the crystal structure of a sapphire and asked that it somehow be incorporated into the widget.

 

With this information we began to come up with some concept ideas for the widget. We had to decide what the widget's function would be, and how we would incorporate the crystal structure and logo into the widget.

 

A smple chart outlining all of the different possibilities we had for the widget helped us determine which components we wanted to focus on and highlight, and so we began sketching...

In order to make a business card holder a bit more exciting, we designed a smaller compartment to be nested within the outer shell that woud rise up out of the housing when the lid was opened. This would put the business cards in a much more manageable position as well as add a bit of "wow" factor to the design.

In this age of technology, it would be difficult to find a work desk that doesn't have some form of mobile communication on it. For this reason we decided to incorporate a "media" stand into our design (pictured above). It would be able to fold down into the design when not in use and would be capable of supporting just about any mobile phone you could find. We also decided to incorporate a storage area for office supplies, something that would help miimize the footprint of the widget while maximizing its utility.

 

We favored this design for it's multipurpose nature and it's general aesthetics, though it still lacked one important aspect. The sapphire crystal. 

Our initial idea was to have a full 3D cyrstal structure that could rest on top of the widget. Due to the fact that we would be 3D printing the entire project would would be able to utilize the printer's capabilities and create a skeleton structure that would look incredible. However we determined that this would require more material than we are allowed and would be a clumsy design.

 

As a solution for the sapphire cyrstal, we decided to use just the profile of the crystal, and create a "cap" like object that could be removed from the widget to inspect closer. The final widget also includes a media stand and pullout storage tray, as well as a removable front plate which reveals extra storage.

 

Some pitfalls of our design were in the overall sizing of components. The media stand, while it was designed to be low profile, proved to be too small as the hinges connecting it to the top of the widget were much to small to be practical or durable. Also the pullout tray was not high enough for a lot of office materials, though it could easily be used to store a stack of post-it notes.

After sending the final widget to our company, we were required to get feedback of the design from the company and then create a final model taking those criticisms into mind. The most important of which was the phone stand, which as you can see in the final design rendering above has greatly increased in size. it also features a much larger and more durable hinge. Some small design enhancements were made to the sapphire cap and the surface it mounts to in order to allow easier access to it. The storage tray was also increased in size slightly to accomodate larger supplies.

This being our first real endeavor into working with a company in industry to produce a real, physical product, it was deemed a success. We responded very well to original information and all feedback given to us and in the end created a widget that still sits on our representatives desk!