Feature Enclosures & air movers
Box clever with design software I
n the mobile devices industry, life cycles are very short – products have to be released quickly or the market decreases exponentially. Pressure is further increased by the number of products hitting the market and by consumer demand for variety. OtterBox manufactures cases for such products. It started with cases for the Blackberry and iPhone, but has rapidly expanded to cover other Apple products, as well as devices from other companies such as Motorola, Nokia, Palm and HTC. However, the com- pany’s products need to come out simultaneously with the devices or just a couple of weeks after. Alan Morine, OtterBox’s research and development manager, said: “We play in a market that changes so rapidly and has so many players that it’s a huge competitive challenge to stay ahead.” Although having to meet the demands for more products at a faster rate, the company needs to ensure these products maintain the rugged quality for which they are known.
Reverse engineering
In 2010, the company changed from outsourcing most of its reverse engi- neering work to doing it in-house. Zach Dunkin, product development techni- cian, takes up the story: “The first reverse engineering software we tried was like learning a new CAD package. It was difficult to use and the surface off- sets wouldn’t work. The time I would have invested in using it effectively would have been too great.” To overcome this problem, the
company decided to use Geomagic Studio software for its 3D reverse engi- neering. According to Dunkin, the difference is the ability to generate clean, crisp surfaces from scan data of the actual device, whether that is a smart phone, iPod or iPad, for which OtterBox is making a custom case. In such a competitive market, there is little room for reworking and the finished product must fit like a glove right out of the box.
By scanning and processing in- house, the company has overcome the delays it would often experience from outsourcing the work. Morine said: “The scan model – what I call the starting block – has to be smooth and clean when it gets to CAD or else certain things won’t propagate and you have to try multiple approaches to get what you want. Little bits of time here and there really add up over the course of the design.”
Advantages
Morine and Dunkin estimate that scanning and processing time has been cut in half by using Geomagic studio in-house – from around seven to ten days when outsourced to three to five days in-house. OtterBox’s current approach starts with either a device provided in advance by the OEM for scanning or a CAD model. If supplied, it is scanned using either a Creaform Handyscan or a Laser Design scanner. The scan data is read into Geomagic Studio for clean- up and to create surfaces. If a CAD model is provided, it is still processed in Geomagic Studio, which is faster at removing extraneous data than CAD software, says Morine.
The Motorola
Devour phone is one of the many for which OtterBox designs customised cases
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According to Dunkin, bringing the scanning and processing in-house has three distinct advantages over out- sourcing. He said: “It’s absolutely necessary when you are working on top-secret devices that you cannot send to an outside vendor. “Doing the work in-house also speeds turnaround time and reduces rework throughout the product development cycle. Last, but not least, it improves interaction with designers. We can find out from the beginning what shapes they need and what data we can omit, which saves time. If there is a problem with a surface, I can change it, re- import it to SolidWorks, and they have a better working surface, quicker.”
Dunkin primarily uses the design-intent mod- eller in the software to clean up data and generate surfaces from the HandyScan hand- held scanner, but has also begun using the exact surface modeller to process the higher- precision scans from the Laser Design scanner. The dual-modelling pro- grammes give him the flexibility to choose the modeller that is best for a specific project.
After surfaces are generated in Geomagic Studio, they are imported into SolidWorks to build surface layers and model product features such as buttons and screens. Once the CAD model is developed and prototyped to the satisfaction of the industrial and mechanical designers, it is sent off for tooling and manufacturing.
Reducing development time Doing its reverse engineering in-house is part of an ongoing campaign by OtterBox to shave product development time and add product capacity without compromising quality. Earlier this year, the company’s typical time from initial scanning to having a manufactured product in the warehouse was 10 to 12 weeks. Morine expects OtterBox to soon reduce that time substantially. “We’re averaging about 10-12 product releases a month, give or take a few,” he said. “We’ll turn out more than 100 products this year and that’s going to keep increasing. We’ll be adding staff, tightening our relationships with OEMs, and using tech- nology tools such as Geomagic Studio to keep compressing the process.” Geomagic Enter 243
www.geomagic.com
OtterBox, a manufacturer of cases for mobile devices, is using Geomagic Studio 3D reverse engineering software, enabling it to produce a finished product that will ‘fit like a glove’
3D scan data of the back of the Motorola Devour in Geomagic Studio
MARCH 2011 Design Solutions
The OtterBox Commuter Series case
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