Project
Brief
To assist in the design and
manufacture of sample castings for functional and performance
testing of a speaker mounting bracket.
A Glasgow based hi-fi company wanted to improve
its commercial offering to customers with a development prototype
in advance of any contract. They had a concept design to mount
one of their products to the wall but wanted to test it in
situ without making a significant investment in hard tooling.
The Concept Prototype: Speaker Mounting
Bracket
The purpose of the prototype samples was to allow
testing for function and performance. The manufacturer completed
3D designs. With the assistace of a design house, we manufactured
the components of the bracket, using stereo-lithography files
(STL) as rapid prototype concept models in a thermo-polymer
material. Two copies of each component were made and these
were then used as the base models for the investment casting
process. The components were then cast as functional prototypes
in aluminium .
The components were then subjected to a number
of tests by the client which revealed a number of issues with
the bracket which was then addressed by the designers.
The project demonstrates the benefits of a rapid
prototyping approach in reducing risk in new product development,
allowing manufacturers to test performance exhaustively in advance
of full production and market launch. |
