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Cisco Uses 3D Printing Technology to Uphold Scandinavian
Design Tradition
This is the story of how professional from word-processing text.
designers combined time-honoured aesthetic
3D printing allowed the Cisco Consumer Business
principles with 3D printing technology to Group to apply its design standards in a way that
produce some of the world's most elegant
keeps the development cycle humming, ensuring
that products get to market on schedule. ZPrinting
consumer electronic equipment.
pumps out prototypes in hours instead of weeks
and for one-fifth the cost.
Devices like wireless routers, the media hub and
“Proportions and ergonomics are paramount, yet
the wireless home audio system create what the
too many designers rely on computer screens
Cisco Consumer Business Group calls the
alone as their design medium,” said Eskild
connected life, a life that is more personal, more
Hansen, Head of Cisco's European Design Centre.
social and more visual. Constant network
“For our strategic design approach, we depend on
connectivity is a given, and the focus is on the
physical prototypes and the ZPrinter 450 for each
content — the music, video, Web pages and work
design review, both locally and globally in concert
materials coursing through the home, office or
with our design partners in the US. ZPrinting is an
classroom.
easy and effective way to conduct a productive,
global design review.”
As these devices further infiltrate the home,
networking gear becomes more central to our
lives. Therefore, like a stainless steel refrigerator,
RESULTS — LOTS OF MODELS FOR
electronics must be aesthetically pleasing with
PRODUCTIVE DESIGN REVIEWS
sleeker lines, while increasing connectivity,
reliability and intuitive operation. Making
Cisco uses the ZPrinter 450 to create 10 models
functional objects both simple and beautiful is the
per week, on average, for design review. Models
challenge Cisco engineers face every day.
are printed directly from 3D CAD files submitted
by Cisco designers around the world.
CHALLENGE — UPHOLDING TRADITIONAL
DESIGN STANDARDS IN THE FAST-
Designers pass around the resulting models, mark
them up, revise designs in the software, print out
GROWING CONSUMER ELECTRONICS
new models, and repeat the cycle as necessary.
WORLD
The hands-on step is an absolute must, according
to Hansen, who selected Z Corporation's
Since design excellence is paramount for the
technology because of confidence in the brand
Cisco Consumer Business Group, the company
and his experience using it in other settings. “We
recently established a European Design Centre in
get prototypes quickly, we refine them quickly, we
Copenhagen, Denmark. Here, the company
create new ones and we derive our elite designs,”
continues the tradition of Scandinavian design —
he said.
functional, minimal and affordable — without
compromising design aesthetics.
to create the quality
Z Corporation is the only company that makes a
that Cisco demands.
3D printer capable of simultaneously printing in
Scandinavian design tradition requires the
The challenge,
multiple colours. Colour dramatically
engineer to hold a prototype of his or her creation
then, is upholding the
communicates the proposed look, feel and style of
in their hands, sense the proportions and ensure
highest aesthetic
engineering product designs and develops
that the form ultimately follows the function. The
standards, while meeting deadlines in the highly
architectural concepts, landscapes, entertainment
artisan then modifies the design, creates another
competitive consumer electronics business, where
figures and medical information.
prototype and examines the new design just like
time-to-market is critical.
the first.
“It's inspiring to see what my team can do with
STRATEGY — INVESTING IN 3D PRINTING
what the world has always received as a basic
The problem is that traditional handcrafted TECHNOLOGY FROM Z CORPORATION
black box,” said Hansen. “Designs like these don't
prototypes are time-consuming and expensive to
just emerge from a computer screen. Because
create. Most automated rapid prototyping Z Corporation's 3D printing technology helps
design is very important, 3D printing is an
technologies are just as costly and must be Cisco quickly and inexpensively create the
important element of our product strategy.”
outsourced, adding time and inconvenience to the physical models they need. A 3D printer creates
process. Though many designers rely on 2D physical objects from 3D computer-aided design
Z Corporation
screen images alone, they are simply insufficient data, much as a 2D printer creates documents W: www.zcorp.com
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