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- 01 Overview
Photo courtesy of BelkinOverviewWith the advent of the new ExpressCard standard, Belkin wanted to harness ExpressCard's high bandwidth capabilities by using it to send laptop audio and video signals to other hardware via a newly designed remote docking station. - 02 Exploration
ExplorationSince this would be the first such product on the market (all existing video-enabled docking stations having a direct connection to the laptop), there was no precedent for what it might look like. In order to quickly evaluate a wide variety of product configurations, I returned to my favorite childhood toy: the LEGO brick. - 03 Form studies
Sketches by Alex RochatForm studiesAs I generated dozens of product configurations using LEGO bricks, the industrial designers at Lunar referred to these mockups as inspiration for their sketches. The sketches above were done by Alex Rochat. - 04 Configuration
ConfigurationBelkin ultimately settled on the vertical configuration shown here, with cables exiting the back. Due to the stiffness of the cables the pedestal would need to extend beyond the back edge of the product to prevent it from tipping backwards. - 05 Industrial design
Industrial designI contributed to the industrial design of the enclosure by building the basic SolidWorks CAD model shown here. These surfaces would later be reconstructed and refined using Pro/Engineer. - 06 Prototypes
Photo courtesy of BelkinPrototypesA number of prototypes were constructed out of various materials over the course of the program. A wax deposition technology was used to fabricate the model pictured here, whose purpose was to evaluate the form of the basic enclosure. - 07 Part breakup
Part breakupOnce the industrial design was approved I sketched out a basic part breakup strategy. This sketch was made before any of the parts existed in the CAD environment, and it was exciting to see the Pro/Engineer model take shape exactly according to the plan. - 08 Molding strategy
Molding strategyThe industrial design for the enclosure threw some fun challenges our way. The cosmetic part shown here had to accommodate PCB and enclosure mounting while also providing light isolation for each of the LED indicators. - 09 Thermal design
Thermal designBelkin wanted our design to accommodate future components that would run at higher temperatures and require forced convection cooling with a fan. We added the internal apertures shown here in blue as a natural convection solution for the initial lower temperature product; the molding tool could later be easily modified to close off these passageways and establish a different airflow path in the fan-equipped products. - 10 Stability testing
Mockup by Alex SeligStability testingWe built this engineering mockup to evaluate the stability of the device with cables attached. A realistic mass was placed inside the mockup according to the location of the center of gravity calculated from the CAD model. - 11 FEA
Analysis by Dan SenatoreFEAThis slide describes some of the computer analysis that is typically done on this type of program. We used the results of this analysis to inform the placement of stiffening ribs on the underside of the pedestal.