The below "Case Studies" are just a few of the designs I have produced since opening the doors of Terminus Design. As a matter of fact almost all of the below "Case Studies" are from clients that worked with me more than once.
Case Study #1
Designed and fabricated a case to house a small portable PC that is pen driven. Looks like a PDA but it isn't; it's actually a full PC. About the size of a sheet of paper. The intended use for this design was to work as a tool to develop other technologies.
Highlights for this design were:
- CAD to Stereo-lithography to Urethane Mold to Usable Parts.
- Case produced in house using basic urethane molding techniques.
- Created assembly fixture to aid in touch screen/display alignment.
- Quick turnaround on design and prototypes.
Case Study #2
I helped in development of a Proximal Housing for a start-up medical device company. They were developing a special catheter for stent deployment at bifurcations. I have previous experience with the design of proximal housings for catheters so if possible I had some specific ideas I wanted to try out. My client was very responsive to my concepts. As a result we created a design that was very well received.
Highlights for this design were:
- Managed design from concept to first full run of injection molded parts.
- Worked with injection molder to eliminate errors before they happened.
- Design complete in less than two weeks.
- First article parts in 8 weeks.
- Attractive / ergonomic design. Right or left hand use. Housing exterior shape lies naturally in the user's hand.
- Fabricated the first 1000 Strain Reliefs in my shop. Strain Reliefs created via urethane molding.
- Created a photo realistic rendering that proved to be a useful marketing tool.
Case Study #3
A client that produces sophisticated accessory equipment for the wafer processing industry asked me to help create a simple and quick fix in a effort to hit a quickly approaching milestone. This task was more about speed and simplicity than technical knowledge. This design was interesting in that my task was to create a skin to cover a metal tube structure that was the size of a small car; the structure actually had a small roll up garage door for access. The skin had to be modular and easy to install and remove.
Highlights for this design were:
- Provide a complete design and documentation in a week.
- Feed back from the client was very positive; no problems, parts went together as planed.
Case Study #4
This was a different kind of project. A client asked me to create a design to hang a 200-300 Lb. wood artwork above a fireplace. The pictures speak for themselves; this piece of artwork is just beautiful. A master must have created this item.
Highlights for this design were:
- Mounting parts only took up 3/4". The stones on the fireplace had been carved back to create a slight recess behind the entire artwork. The effect is stunning; the artwork looks flush to the fireplace.
Case Study #5
A start-up company developing a tabletop piece of equipment used to analyze blood looked to me to design several mechanical aspects of their invention. A design of note is a small two-sided bottle that the tabletop unit would use during operation. Each bottle needed to contain two different fluids, so we design a single bottle with two chambers and lids.
Highlights for this design were:
- Two (straight pull) injection molded parts to make one bottle with two chambers.
- Bottle chambers design to hold a specific volume of fluid (not equal to each other)
- Bottle has stowage compartments to hold lids while in use.
- Bottle designed to fit into a circular carousel; so the bottles nest with each other making a pleasing pattern.
- Despite the odd shape the bottles will stand on their own.
Case Study #6
On several occasions I have had clients call in a pinch to finish a design or for simple drafting work. No job is too big or too small for me to always respond as quickly as possible. It isn't uncommon for job to come to me on a Wednesday or Thursday and I have complete documentation by Monday. Of course how quickly I can respond/finish is dependent on my current workload and the size of the task but I must say I have been able to satisfy my clients time and time again.
Case Study #7
A Company in Nevada needed me to complete a design for a unique CD case. Of course they needed a complete design in a hurry but what made this job interesting is that the CAD files I received weren't useable. They had been transferred between CAD systems a few times and became very unstable and couldn't handle any changes. So I completely rebuilt them in Solidworks.
Highlights for this design were:
- High volume product. I enjoyed being part of some thing that so many consumers will like.
- Despite the unusable files I still responded quickly. After rebuilding the parts, I incorporated the original changes as well as several additional changes not originally planned on.
Case Study #8
Now I'm going to group several designs into this case study. Many of the clients I have are start-ups or just want to stay in a stealth mode. For these designs I'm unable to describe them with out describing proprietary information. But, for these jobs I can offer this. I can provide references. References from the folks I work with everyday. They know how useful Terminus Design has been for them and I would be happy to have you talk to them.
Highlights for this design were:
- In many cases I'm able to provide the design work as well as fabrication and assembly. This is exactly what many of my clients want. Fewer people know about what my client is developing thus keeping their market advantage strong.
- I have created a countless number of assembly fixtures (I'm sure there's a number, I just don't know what it is). Often the method used to construct a product is more valuable or important than what the product is. Therefore secrecy can be just as important for a fixture; I realize this and I honor this.
Case Study #9
In this case I had a client that was getting ready for a trade show. They had planed to repackage the electronics from a rack mount product into a tabletop version of the product. This job had a few interesting twists. First, the existing data was in 2D AutoCAD format. Fortunately, Solidworks can read AutoCAD drawings and I was easily able to extract the profiles I needed to replicate the existing parts. Second, I was able to repackage the entire design into a attractive tabletop enclosure without changing a single part of the existing design.
Highlights for this design were:
- Despite different CAD formats I was able to produce the design quickly and I was able to supply AutoCAD format files of the new design back to my client when the job was done.
- Complete design and documentation in less than two weeks.
Case Study #10
I helped a client that was a pharmaceutical company. They specialized in testing for drugs of abuse. They brought me in to help solve a process problem. They have no mechanical engineering staff. As part of the "chain of custody" they would print a legal certificate to convey the results. To do this they would print the certificate and then hand scan the bar code from the certificate to synchronize the certificate with the digital data. My task was to figure out a way to marry their industrial sized dot matrix printer with an OEM bar code scanner.
Highlights for this design were:
- Design completed in days.
- Managed the design from concept to installation. Some parts created in my shop but most were (sheet metal) were farmed out.
- Pre-assembled in my shop and brought on site for quick installation.
- Complete with working installation in three weeks.
- Used existing features and mounting holes to marry the two items (I didn't add a single hole or feature).
- Bar code scanner easily mounted/adjusted to accommodate all types of documents and bar code locations.
An interesting note: Until informed a service rep. for the dot matrix printer company thought this was a kit supplied by the printer company that he didn't know about.
