Today one of the biggest expenses for any technology company is ship its product. This is especially true when your product is heavy.

Most delivery service device enclosures are made of some type of fabricated sheet metal.

It is made of this material because it is quick and easy to make. The decision to make it out of this material might be a wise choice when you are trying to improve the device and are constantly changing it.

There comes a time when the device is more mature and does not require any changes. This is when you should begin to look at cost cutting the device.

Our customer’s device had reached that mature state. Our customer had such a product. The product was a wall mount PC made of sheet metal. If was very heavy and cost a lot to ship across the country. In addition, the aesthetics of the device no longer matched the marking status that our customer enjoys as the leader in their industry.

It’s time to evaluate the device and its cost.

Problem

Our customer needed to solve the three main problems when searching for a solution.

1. Lower Cost
2. Improve the aesthetics of the device
3. Make the product lighter

Solution

When we attacked the problem it became apparent that the first line of attack was the enclosure. INDUCOMP’s design team took all the components of the existing device and made solid drawings in Solidworks (CAD software) of each component. Then began designing a new plastic enclosure. Once the enclosure was designed we created a 3D print of the enclosure. This 3D part represented the actual part in plastic. We now could mount the electronic boards, the LED display and other parts. This 3D print allowed us to building up a first article prototype prior to building a mold.

With this 3D print enclosure built up to simulate a production part, we are able to work with our customer to improve the part and discover any flaws in the design. When all changes were applied, we printed a final 3D print of the enclosure and assembled the device for final sign-off.

This process reduced the weight of the enclosure by 60% and created an average freight savings of $15-$20 per shipment.

The device weighed less and the esthetics looked modern and sleek. Not only was there a freight savings but a reduction in cost. The plastic injected part reduced the enclosure cost by 75%!

Today there are so many choices around the world to create plastic injection molds and parts. Custom molds today carry a much lower cost than they did years ago.

Maybe your device needs a facelift and\or a cost-cutting exercise? Call one of our design engineers and see how cost effective it is for you to have the most advanced and sleek device running your software.