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Archive for January, 2011

Methodology

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Data acquisition begins with the physical phenomenon or physical property to be measured. Examples of this include temperature, light intensity, gas pressure, fluid flow, and force. Regardless of the type of physical property to be measured, the physical state that is to be measured must first be transformed into a unified form that can be sampled by a data acquisition system. The task of performing such transformations falls on devices called sensors.

A sensor, which is a type of transducer, is a device that converts a physical property into a corresponding electrical signal (e.g., a voltage or current) or, in many cases, into a corresponding electrical characteristic (e.g., resistance or capacitance) that can easily be converted to electrical signal.

The ability of a data acquisition system to measure differing properties depends on having sensors that are suited to detect the various properties to be measured. There are specific sensors for many different applications. DAQ systems also employ various signal conditioning techniques to adequately modify various different electrical signals into voltage that can then be digitized using an Analog-to-digital converter (ADC).

Signals

Signals may be digital (also called logic signals sometimes) or analog depending on the transducer used.

Signal conditioning may be necessary if the signal from the transducer is not suitable for the DAQ hardware to be used. The signal may be amplified or deamplified, or may require filtering, or a lock-in amplifier is included to perform demodulation. Various other examples of signal conditioning might be bridge completion, providing current or voltage excitation to the sensor, isolation, linearization, etc.

Analog signals tolerate almost no cross talk and so are converted to digital data, before coming close to a PC or before traveling along long cables. For analog data to have a high signal-to-noise ratio, the signal needs to be very high, and sending +-10 Volts along a fast signal path with a 50 Ohm termination requires powerful drivers. With a slightly mismatched or no termination at all, the voltage along the cable rings multiple times until it is settled in the needed precision. Digital data can have +-0.5 Volt. The same is true for DACs. Also digital data can be sent over glass fiber for high voltage isolation or by means of Manchester encoding or similar through RF-couplers, which prevent net hum.

DAQ hardware

DAQ hardware is what usually interfaces between the signal and a PC. It could be in the form of modules that can be connected to the computer’s ports (parallel, serial, USB, etc…) or cards connected to slots (S-100 bus, AppleBus, ISA, MCA, PCI, PCI-E, etc…) in the mother board. Usually the space on the back of a PCI card is too small for all the connections needed, so an external breakout box is required. The cable between this box and the PC is expensive due to the many wires, the required shielding, and because it is exotic.

DAQ cards often contain multiple components (multiplexer, ADC, DAC, TTL-IO, high speed timers, RAM). These are accessible via a bus by a microcontroller, which can run small programs. The controller is more flexible than a hard wired logic, yet cheaper than a CPU so that it is alright to block it with simple polling loops. For example: Waiting for a trigger, starting the ADC, looking up the time, waiting for the ADC to finish, move value to RAM, switch multiplexer, get TTL input, let DAC proceed with voltage ramp.

Reconfigurable computing may deliver high speed for digital signals. Digital signal processors spend a lot of silicon on arithmetic and allow tight control loops or filters. The fixed connection with the PC allows for comfortable compilation and debugging. Using an external housing a modular design with slots in a bus can grow with the needs of the user. High speed binary data needs special purpose hardware called time to digital converter and high speed 8 bit ADCs called oscilloscopes, which are typically not connected to DAQ hardware, but directly to the PC.

Not all DAQ hardware has to run permanently connected to a PC, for example intelligent stand-alone loggers and controllers, which can be operated from a PC, yet they can operate completely independent of the PC.

DAQ software

DAQ software is needed in order for the DAQ hardware to work with a PC. The device driver performs low-level register writes and reads on the hardware, while exposing a standard API for developing user applications. A standard API such as COMEDI allows the same user applications to run on different operating systems, e.g. a user application that runs on Windows will also run on Linux and BSD.

History

In 1963, IBM produced computers which were specialized for data acquisition. These include the IBM 7700 Data Acquisition System and its successor, the IBM 1800 Data Acquisition and Control System. These expensive specialized systems were surpassed in 1974 by general purpose S-100 computers and data acquisitions cards produced by Tecmar/Scientific Solutions Inc. In 1981 IBM introduced the IBM Personal Computer and Scientific Solutions introduced the first PC data acquisition products.

See also

Signal processing

Data analysis

Test method

Input devices:

3D scanner

Analog to digital converter

Time to digital converter

Hardware:

CAMAC – Computer Automated Measurement and Control

Industrial Ethernet

Industrial USB

LAN eXtensions for Instrumentation

NIM

PowerLab

PCI eXtensions for Instrumentation

VMEbus

VXI

Software:

Comedi

EPICS

LabChart

LabVIEW

MATLAB

References

^ COMDEX FALL November 18, 1981 Las Vegas, NV, “Tecmar shows 20 IBM PC option cards.. LabMaster,LabTender,DADIO,DeviceTender,IEEE-488..”

^ PC Magazine Vol1 No.1, “Taking the Measure” by David Bunnell, “Tecmar deployed 20 option cards for the IBM PC”

^ PC Magazine Vol1 No.5, “Tecmar Triumph” by David Bunnell, Scientific Solutions releases 20 new products for the PC

^ BYTE Vol7 No.1 “Scientific Solutions – Advertisement for data acquisition boards, stepper controllers, IEEE-488 products

^ Test&Meausrement; World Vol11 No 10 Decade of Progress Award: Scientific Solutions – LabMaster First in PC Data Acquisition

Further reading

Simon McBeath (2002). Competition Car Data Logging: A Practical Handbook. J. H. Haynes & Co.. ISBN 1-85960-653-9. 

Simon S. Young (2001). Computerized Data Acquisition and Analysis for the Life Sciences. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56570-7. 

W. R. Leo (1994). Techniques for Nuclear and Particle Physics Experiments. Springer. ISBN 3-540-57280-5. 

Charles D. Spencer (1990). Digital Design for Computer Data Acquisition. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-37199-6. 

B.G. Thompson & A. F. Kuckes (1989). IBM-PC in the laboratory. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-32199-9. 

Buddy Fey (1996). Data Power: Using Racecar Data Acquisition. Towery Pub. ISBN 1-88109-601-7. 

Categories: Data collectionHidden categories: Articles with unsourced statements from September 2009 | All articles with unsourced statements

3D prototyping is the mechanical creation of physical substances using patented polyjet manufacturing technology. 3D prototyping technologies originated in their simplest plastic and liquid hardening versions in 1988 and were initially used to make simple static model structures. Many famous artists have used 3D prototyping technology to create installations for exhibitions. In recent years, the advancements in and the use of CAD and 3D prototyping has continued to spread. As such its important to understand the background and application for 3D prototyping processes.

Current Usage of 3D Prototyping

3D prototyping models have many uses. They make great visual aids for communicating ideas to colleagues or for presentations to customers. Being able to see, feel and hear an idea accounts for over half of one’s senses and helps make an impression on customers. One of the greatest benefits of 3D prototyping is that it can significantly reduce company costs. Outsourcing 3D modeling needs to suppliers is expensive and time consuming. With the latest 3D Prototyping equipment 3D printers can sit on a desk in your office.

3D prototyping is already applied in a number of industries and sectors. 3D prototyping is currently being used by in healthcare, engineering, education, architecture and the entertainment industry. It’s also being used by paleontologists to model fossils, duplicate prehistoric artifacts and to reconstruct bones and body parts to create a 3D tangible model of ancient mankind. Today, Architects are using 3D prototyping technology to design buildings with precise measurements and able to create 3D models in-house and therefore confidentially. Engineers are testing designs and able to locate errors and design flaws quicker and cheaper than previously.

Future Usage of 3D Prototyping

3D prototyping technology is presently being studied by biotechnology firms and universities. Their objective is to use 3D prototyping and engineering applications to create body parts and organs. Scientists can today use 3D prototyping to place layers of living cells on to gel mediums to test and learn how they react to being transplanted to humans, therefore reducing the need for live animal testing. With the help of a 3D prototype, one day recognizable pieces of furniture in a home can replaced by a 3D printer and a recycling unit. Clothing, cutlery and books can already be printed on demand.

In the future, product designers, engineers, teachers and architects will all be using 3D prototyping systems in their respective careers to teach, demonstrate and sell their concepts instantly. 3D prototyping has only been around for about 2 decades and has only recently become affordable enough for businesses to use in-house. Just imagine what the future holds for 3D prototyping printers.

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CATIA stands for Computer Aided Three-dimensional Interactive Application and is one of the most widely known and used software systems in the CAD world that is marketed and technically supported by IBM. The software is very intricate and is used by some of the biggest names in the business world. Currently over 20,000 companies use it worldwide and the distinguished list of names that use the software are top names such as Goodyear, Ford, Toyota, Hyundai, Boeing, Porsche, and Lear Jet just to name a few. All these top companies and more take advantage of the powerful applications that the software has to offer in order to help develop and design their products.

If you are planning on getting into such careers as design, manufacturing, or architecture then learning CATIA software will most likely be required of you at some point in time. So how do you go about learning the ins and outs of CATIA?

Because CATIA is such an intricate program the only way to adequately learn CATIA is to get some training with the software. There are several ways to go about this such as:

Training Seminars: There are a number of training seminars that are conducted each year all geared towards teaching you how to use CATIA software. Depending on where you live you can sometimes find many providers of such trailing or a limited number, but you should be able to find some level of help either way. A quick search online will reveal the numerous establishments that conduct such training seminars. Many prefer this type of training as they can actually learn by doing as the CATIA training seminars will have a lot of hands on training.

Online Training: Thanks to the internet it is no longer necessary to leave you home in order to learn how to use CATIA software. Many institutions and even colleges will offer a class and training online making the learning of CATIA software something that can be done around your busy schedule. Sometimes it is not necessary to even have the CATIA software on your computer as there are places that will offer a modular type of training where you will learn certain aspects of the software as you go along.

Colleges and Tech Schools: Many colleges and technical schools across the country now offer classes specifically for CATIA software. These classes are a better way to learn the program if you do well in a classroom environment. Many students prefer to be in such an environment so that they can raise their hand and ask questions should the need arise. Not that you cant ask questions in an online setting, they just may not get answered right away.

No matter how you decide to learn CATIA it is a necessity if you plan on having a successful design, manufacturing, or architecture career. CATIA is used in every corner of the globe and only by mastering the software will you give yourself the best opportunity to succeed no matter which way your career path takes you.

A resin composition suited for rapid prototype is provided comprising an actinic energy radiation-curable silicone composition, an actinic energy radiation-sensitive polymerization initiator, and an actinic energy radiation absorber. The resin composition experiences little viscosity buildup and maintains fluidity during long-term storage at elevated temperature, and is effective in rapid prototyping or shaping by stereolithography using any actinic energy radiation.

This invention relates to a resin composition suitable for use in rapid prototyping or stereolithography technique to form three-dimensional objects having improved rubber physical properties.

Recently, a technique of optically forming a three-dimensional object from a photo-curable liquid resin composition on the basis of data output from a three-dimensional CAD system is on widespread use because the desired three-dimensional object can be manufactured at satisfactory dimensional precision without a need for molds or the like. This technique is broadly referred to as rapid prototyping and specifically as stereolithography. With respect to this technique, JP-A 56-144478 (Kodama) disclosed a method of forming a three-dimensional object by supplying a required amount of optical energy to a photo-curable resin, and JP-A 60-247515 established a practically acceptable method.

A typical method of optically manufacturing a three-dimensional object involves selectively irradiating an ultraviolet laser beam to the surface of liquid photo-curable resin contained in a vat under the control of a computer to harden the photo-curable resin so that a photo-cured resin layer having a predetermined thickness is obtained, then supplying a layer of liquid photo-curable resin onto the cured resin layer and then likewise irradiating an ultraviolet laser beam to the liquid photo-curable resin layer to form a cured resin layer contiguous to the previous one, and repeating the laminating operations until a desired three-dimensional object is obtained. Great attention has recently been paid to this rapid prototyping technique because a three-dimensional object of complex configuration can be formed with ease and within a relatively short time.

To actinic energy radiation-curable resin compositions for use in the rapid prototyping are imposed many requirements including high cure sensitivity to actinic energy radiation, good resolution of a shaped object, high precision of shaping, a minimal volume shrinkage factor upon curing, good mechanical properties of cured product, good self-adherence, good curing properties in an oxygen-containing atmosphere, a low viscosity, resistance to water or moisture, minimal absorption of water or moisture with time, and dimensional stability. Prior art resin compositions known to be used in the rapid prototyping include photo-curable acrylate resin compositions, photo-curable urethane-acrylate resin compositions, photo-curable epoxy resin compositions, photo-curable epoxy-acrylate resin compositions, and photo-curable vinyl ether resin compositions.

There is a need for resins which when processed by the rapid prototyping technique, exhibit “rubber-like property,” that is, the nature that they easily undergo deformation, without rupture, under an applied stress and resume the original shape after the stress is relieved. However, the structures obtained by curing these resins are basically rigid and exhibit the nature that they fail when a stress above a certain level is applied.

A number of materials that exhibit rubber elasticity independently of photo-curing are used in the industry. Typical examples include ethylene-propylene rubber, butadiene rubber, polyurethane rubber, silicone rubber, and fluoro-rubber. However, the resin which cures into a practically acceptable state upon exposure to actinic energy radiation is limited to the silicone rubber.

Although the compositions described in these patents cure upon exposure to actinic energy radiation, their cure rate is yet too slow to apply to the stereolithography so that they could not be used in practical rapid prototyping. Even when they are cured to completion with the time taken therefor being neglected, the resulting rubber model will become embrittled shortly and exhibit no longer rubber elasticity. It would be desirable to have a resin which is amenable to the rapid prototyping or stereolithography and exhibits and maintain rubber elasticity.

An object of the present invention is to provide a rapid prototyping resin composition of the actinic energy radiation cure type, which has improved storage stability and aging stability prior to exposure to actinic energy radiation, experiences little viscosity buildup during long-term storage at elevated temperature, has high cure sensitivity to actinic energy radiation, typically light, and when exposed to actinic energy radiation, produces in a smooth and efficient manner a cured part which has improved dimensional precision, shaping precision, water resistance, and moisture resistance, and exhibits stable rubber elasticity over a long term, especially elastomeric physical properties as demonstrated by an elastic recovery ratio of at least 80% after elongation of at least 100%.

The inventors sought for materials which exhibit rubber physical properties that lend themselves to rapid prototyping or stereolithography. We have found that a silicone resin composition of the actinic energy radiation cure type, especially a silicone rubber (i.e., organopolysiloxane elastomer) based material comprising an alkenyl-containing organopolysiloxane, a mercapto-containing organopolysiloxane, and preferably an alkenyl-containing MQ resin is an effective rapid prototyping resin, and that an actinic energy radiation-curable resin composition obtained by blending therewith an actinic energy radiation-sensitive polymerization initiator (especially radical polymerization initiator) and an actinic energy radiation absorber is amenable to shaping using actinic energy radiation, typically rapid prototyping or stereolithography. Although the resin composition has high cure sensitivity to actinic energy radiation and rapidly cures when exposed to actinic energy radiation, the resin composition is easy to handle in that it has improved storage stability and aging stability, and when stored for a long time, even at elevated temperature, experiences little viscosity buildup and maintains a flowable state compatible with rapid prototyping.

Upon exposure to actinic energy radiation, the resin composition cures into a photo-cured or rapid prototype part which has improved resolution, shaping precision, dimensional precision, mechanical properties and outer appearance, and among the mechanical properties, exhibits improved rubber elasticity as demonstrated by an elastic recovery ratio of at least 80% after elongation of at least 100% which has never been achieved with prior art resins.

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A mockup is a model of the design of the site or app. It has the look of the project, but it’s not the final project. Nowadays, most designers prefer to create them using image software like Photoshop or Illustrator.

The difference between mockup and wireframe is that most wireframes are drawn by UX designers, and don’t have colour, typography and photos. The mockups do have them, and most are done by the designers. Of course, if it’s a single-person team, one can do everything.

Some UX designers present wireframes with mood boards to clients and designers, to show what they want/need in the project. Mood boards, or concept boards, are wireframes with some colour, but some UX designers think it should be used in a later part of the development process. We recommend the post from Jakub Linowski about mood boards.

The prototypes, on the other hand, are more complex, because they provide part (if not all) the functionality of a website or program. For example, if you can click, navigate, search, and have interaction, it will be a prototype.

When to use wireframes, mockups and prototypes

Wireframes are done to understand the space, the navigation and the structure of the project. They are built without details to get people’s attention to the structure. Think of them as the outlines or the floor plan of a building. You have to pay attention because they’re not meant to restrict designers’ work, but to improve it.

Mockups are better to get clients to understand how the site is going to be. Some clients, mainly the less experienced ones, when see a wireframe, black and white, without his logo and with Lorem Ipsun text, don’t like and reject the project. This can be avoided with a mockup.

A prototype is a more advanced thing, to be used when you have a difficult project to specify, with interactive details, such as movements, transitions, and all have to be approved before coding. Also, they can be used for testing, both usability and to sell the project to clients. Since it’s easier to make a working prototype with software such as Justinmind Prototyper than coding everything, we have seen several clients doing all the testing and approving with a functional prototype.

Should I use Justinmind Prototyper to create a mockup?

If you want to create several pages, and show the interactions between them, we strongly recommend so. You can create the look and feel in your favourite design software, export them as images, and insert into your wireframe easily, and using templates, create a functional prototype with ease. This way, you’ll be able to present something very much alike what you’ll have after coding, simplifying the project of approval and finalization, with clients and co-workers.

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Introduction

Everybody who is in the business of New Product Development knows what a complex process it is. This is a multidisciplinary activity requiring coherence between almost all the functions of manufacturing firms.

Until recently though those who were called ‘product designers‘ played in this process a role of rather a secondary importance. They were briefed by marketing, engineering departments, ad agencies with an only task: ‘We want this look nice‘…

Then something went wrong. And those days are over. Today, Design Council Chairman prepares reports to the UK Prime-minister on how ‘UK businesses can stay ahead of their global rivals by drawing on the country’s world-leading design capabilities’. And at Davos, during the World Economic Forum held under the theme ‘The Creative Imperative’, world leaders discuss how to apply design thinking to survive in the uncertainty and complexity global economy brings.

Approach to design in Russia is still at the level of aesthetics and, at best, ergonomics. In the meantime, design can be applied as a strategic business tool at least in the two directions. Inside the company design can become a strong management tool for aligning – and, thus, optimization – all the processes of NPD through focusing on the needs of all stakeholders for whom the product is developed, through creating consumer-based innovation culture. Outside the company designers have proved to be excellent observers researching into people’s unmet needs and, thus, discovering new niches and even new markets.

Developing innovative product: Seven reasons to think about the future is searching into the ways which made design shift from aesthetics towards strategy and discussing how to make most out of design thinking when developing really innovative new products, – both tangible and intangible.

«Only one company can be the cheapest, the others have to use design.»

Rodney Fitch, Chairman Fitch & Co

Reason #1. Fundamental Changes in the World Design Industry

The industry of design is undergoing deep transformation: from now on design is not only for appearance and style. Design is dramatically changing its role from being simply a tactical device to becoming a strategic business tool.

How does it have to do with NPD?

Design today is playing a much more important role during the first, probably, the most critical phase in the whole process of developing new product. This is a stage of strategic planning when you need to understand what to do, what target audience will be involved, what brand values will be pronounced, what new value to your customer this product will bring. It will not be an overstatement to say that it is from this stage success and failure of the new product depends. After all, it is not by accident that this ‘0‘ phase is called the Fuzzy Front End of Innovation…

What happens with designers today?

They expand their capabilities into new to them areas until then being ‘occupied’ by marketers, brand specialists and management consultants. They obtain degrees in business and anthropology, psychology and ethnography. And more and more they become ‘human factors’ specialists.

«We investigated into fourteen large companies with an annual sales volume from 0 million to billion. We discovered that only four of them had managed to meet plan in terms of timing, functionality of new products and market share. In five cases companies designed new generation’s products which were positively evaluated by experts, but at the end these products failed. As it turned out, every time when in an NPD process difficulties occurred, the roots of problems could easily be found at the stage of early planning, when the company had to decide what design the new product will have.»

«In search for new generation’s product», Harvard Business Review, 2007

Reason #2. Transformation of Consumption Culture

What are the reasons for the changes in the role design plays in NPD?

Technological revolution provides customers with real power in the market. Today, the question of the utmost importance for brands is how to satisfy people who have an almost endless choice reinforced by instant access to global market.

Thus, the main issue of NPD has dramatically changed:

Until recently it was: ‘What technical/organization/financial/manufacturing possibilities for designing new product we have’ (Technology-Driven Strategy);

Now: ‘What else does our customer want?/How can we emphasize with him?/What should we design to make our new brand/product experience as interesting, amazing, exciting as possible’(Consumer-Driven Strategy).

«It’s About Wants, Not Needs.

Consumers are saying they have enough stuff, want more experiences – 59% of them say they have all the material things they need.»

Fitch, 2005

Moreover, fusion of virtual and mobile cultures give people the power to manage their own ‘marketing environment’ regardless of companies business aims:

«3000: Number of advertising messages people are exposed to per day;
90%: Proportion of people who can skip TV ads who do skip TV ads;
80%: Market share of video recorders with ad skipping technology in 2008;
69%: Proportion of people interested in technology that enable them to skip of block advertising.»

Justin Kirby & Paul Marsden (2006). Connected thinking, Oxford, UK

Reason #3. Marketing Research vs. Design Research

Who meets new challenges?

Traditional marketing tools are good to shape already existed in the market ideas, understand whether these ideas have huge market and potential. All anything, but the larger demand for innovation, the more problems with identifying new product opportunities marketing has. Thus, companies have huge difficulties with identifying unmet customer needs since these are largely latent and not easy to formulate by the customers themselves.

By this, intuitive thinking, qualitative approach used by designers is very good for imagining new possibilities. Designers proved to be those folks who have managed to accomplish traditional marketing research with its design research methods based on approaching to human life in all its complexity and versatility.
This was the reason the whole NPD chain turned upside down and today it is not marketers and so called creative agencies tell designers what to do, but design consultancies identify new product opportunities, create design briefs, conduct research, develop a platform for further innovations and even brief ad companies on how to promote the new product.

«Eìery year brings 30,000 new products.
About 90% of the fail despite thorough and expensive market research…»

Harvard Business Review, 2005

«If I’d asked people what they wanted, they would have asked for a better horse…»

Henry Ford

Reason #4. From ‘Consumer’ to ‘Human’ Experience

What philosophy is behind design research?

Unlike artificial situations of focus group discussions, designers prefer conducting in-context observations looking at the world through their customers’ eyes, empathizing with the soul, mind and body of customer. Philosophy of Zen Buddhism with its total immersion in reality, attention to ordinary life and day-to-day experiences is possibly the best way to describe how they like approaching to work.
Those who combine design thinking with interest in user research are called human fa?tors specialists. They research into total human – not merely customer – experience, investigate how people approach the world, what nuances of interaction with the product, brand, environment is of the most importance for them, what they expect from usage. That’s why in development divisions of many companies we can find such new positions as cognitive psychologists, social anthropologists, cross-cultural specialists who adapt products of global brands to markets with different values and mentality, as well as ethnographers. For example, Intel has more than twenty ethnographers among its employees. Microsoft, British Telecom, AT&T, HP, IBM – these and many other companies hire ethnographers who are excellent at watching people during design research.

If in a focus group you ask your potential user what characteristics should product of the future possess, high chances the answer will be in an area of the already known. At best, you will be said how to improve already existed aspects of using, say, a drill. The point is that the customer comes to a shop not to buy the drill. He is looking for a hole in the wall and you can endlessly redesign drill until some day somebody solves the issue of ‘a hole in the wall’ in some different way. And this will be the innovation.

It is not by accident that design thinking is often called ‘out-of-the-box thinking’: it is this way of thinking which helps come out beyond ‘consumer’ experience approach and see a human who has home and in this home he or she wants harmony and cosiness and to reach these one requires a means of mounting the picture they like to the wall. After all, should it be a drill or something else, for this human is not that important…

Reason #5. Design Thinking – Best Tool to Tackle Tacit Knowledge

But why design??

As a real power in the market goes to the customer, and knowledge worker accumulates critical for companies survival knowledge in his/her head, the problem of efficient dealing with tacit knowledge is becoming a real challenge within businesses and organizations. In other words, New Economy requires new way of thinking to tackle ‘ill-defined’ tacit knowledge – call it synthetic, lateral, innovative, right-brain, divergent and, of course, design thinking.
In fact, to go from a business concept of a new product to its actual realization, from the world of idea to its materialization, means to be able to combine together controversial, on the one hand and underdetermined, on the other, demands:

1. Consumer’s need in the product or service;
2. Viability of new product development for business;
3. Feasibility from the point of view of the required technologies.

«In poems, in novels, in painting the brain seems to find itself able to work very well with material that any computer would have rejected as formless.»
Norbert Wiener

«Today perceptiveness is more important than analysis.»
Peter Drucker

Reason #6. From Product Design to Experience Design

What does all this mean for “new designers”?

An ability to create diverse human experiences, not just physical shapes. Content, not simply form. Workplaces not merely furniture. This is a gift of co-creation, of holistic approach to life and ability to fill it with meaning, emotions and lifestyle drivers.

Today, leading design consultancies position themselves as talents in creating a “complete product, brand, customer experience”. They regard this as their main competitive advantage. And it is well explained: ‘industrial design’ as a creation of the product appearance has moved to the Chinese – the chances you outperform them in therms of speed, price and even quality are neat to zero.

It is quite interesting, that the word “experience” is one of the most difficult for translating into the Russian language…

«Truth cannot be defined, although it can certainly be experienced.

But experience is not a definition. Definition is done by the mind, experience is done by participating. If somebody asks, «What is a dance?» how can you define it? But you can dance and you can know the inner feel of it.»

Osho

Reason #7. From the Knowledge Economy to the Creativity Economy

What does all this mean for businesses?

A new stage in the evolution and, first of all, an urgent search for new type of employees who are able to work with fuzzy, ‘sticky‘ and vague information – the stuff inside employees’ and customers’ heads so critical for companies survival.

That’s why we hear about ‘The Creative Imperative’ and observe deep interest of businesses in design, its methods and tools. For apply of such unique design tools, as design iconography, prototyping, scenario planning, storytelling, storyboards, videos have proved themselves as highly efficient in compressing and transferring multiple and complex concepts in the form which is easy to comprehend by a variety of audiences.

Moreover, design thinking being intrinsically synthetic type of thinking – read, leading to innovation – can be highly appropriate to co-create tacit knowledge of the network by:

1. Tapping tacit knowledge
2. Processing it into tangibles
3. Transferring it both inside and outside the company.

‘The Knowledge Economy is being eclipsed by the Creativity Economy…

What was once central to corporations — price, quality, and much of the left-brain, digitized analytical work associated with knowledge – is fast being shipped off to lower-paid, highly trained Chinese and Indians, as well as Hungarians, Czechs, and Russians. Increasingly, the new core competence is creativity – the right-brain stuff that smart companies are now harnessing to generate top-line growth. The game is changing. It isn’t just about math and science anymore. It’s about creativity, imagination, and, above all, innovation.’

Business Week, 2005

Questions and more information

Ekaterina Khramkova
CEO, Founding director, Lumiknows

MA: Design & Branding Strategy (Brunel University, UK); PhD (Russian Academy of Sciences); MSc (Moscow State University);
Member of the Design Committee by the Russian Ministry of Economic Development;
Lecturer at the British Higher School of Art and Design in Moscow on Design Research, Foresight and Trends Forecasting;
Coordinator for reddot Design Concept in Russia.

In 2005, Ekaterina was awarded a Chevening scholarship from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the British government to enable her to undertake the Masters course in Design and Branding Strategy at Brunel University – one of the first programs in the world designed to bring
benefits of design thinking to the needs of business and society. For the first time in Russia, this prestigious scholarship was given in the area of New Product Development.

Contacts

www.designresearch.ru

Lumiknows RUSSIA: Moscow, St.-Petersburg

New Product Development
+7 495 585 7289
info@designresearch.ru

Speaking Engagement & Coaching
coaching@lumiknows.com

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A 3D printer is more compact, affordable, as well as simple to use as compared with the Rapid prototyping or RP machines. And in time to come 3D printers are going to be seen in all the offices and the homes ubiquitously. Three-dimensional or 3D printers usually present creative imagination. Interestingly, the 3D printers can actually create whichever three-dimensional object you want, no matter how complicated it is, but the process happens to be incredibly simple. The objects are scrupulously built up within the printer in the form of thin layers, as per the blueprints provided by a particular PC system.

Some most popular 3-D Printer brands and manufacturers are

1. Objet Geometries Ltd.: They are established manufacturers of very reliable printers and have an almost enviable reputation of embracing enhanced technologies for supplying quality printers. Their Objet Polyjet model of 3D printer in fact surpasses all the models manufactured by its competitors due to its excellent finish, its layout plus incorporated materials. Alaris 30 happens to be the most recent product of Objet. Attuned with desktops, this 3D printer can churn 600x600dpi resources into numerous moving parts.

2 .Z Corporation: Z Corporation’s range of three-dimensional printers is perhaps the best choice for a person looking out for budget-friendly options for the creation of prototypes. Market analysts unvaryingly agree that the Z Corp 3D printer is perfectly appropriate for the offices as it permits its users to execute functional testing very easily and also quickly. Users do not need to outsource the making of prototypes any longer and this leads to conservation of both time as well as money. This corporation has a variety of models namely- ZPrinter 650, ZPrinter 450, Spectrum Z510 and ZPrinter 310 Plus.

3. Desktop Factory: Some time back, 3D printers used to be very large as well as pricey and they were found generally in leading corporations or selected design firms. Desktop Factory 125ci three-dimensional printers have altered all that. These days, Desktop Factory happens to be arguably the best where low-cost and quality performance three-dimensional printing machines are concerned. The 3D printers of Desktop Factory are lightweight with a dimension of around 25 x 20 x 20 inches.

4. Dimension: Stratasys has a brand of 3D printers which is known as Dimension. These printers are very robust and at the same time they are very easy to operate. They are made with the ABS plastic and can be drilled, machined, painted as well as sanded. The three lines of Dimension 3D printers are -1200es series, Elite and uPrint Personal three-dimensional printers.

Apart from these there are 3D Printers from manufacturers like Market Bet, Dimensions, V Flash, and Prodigy Plus which are also quite good. It is being considered by most of the experts that every kind of end user will sooner or later have a 3D printer and since this 3D printing technology is catching up in homes too the prices of these printers are starting to fall. As a result market analysts assert that as the majority of the low-priced 3D printer models are fairly recent in market, it becomes difficult to contrast or compare these printers.

Mold is a major technical equipment of modern industry, the production of many industrial products, an indispensable component. China’s accession to WTO, ability to attract foreign investment increased year by year, the status of the world become more prominent product manufacturing plants, various industrial products import more and more mold.

    The type of mold is usually processed in accordance with the different objects and processes are classified, from the industry point of view the main distinction between a plastic mold, rubber mold, the metal of the cold die, Metal extrusion die of cold and hot extrusion dies, metal drawing die , powder metallurgy molds, metal casting molds, metal casting molds, glass molds, fiberglass mold and so on.

    The following only in respect of imports of the most common plastic molding process used in the different types of mold are classified and how to make a description.

    The most common method of plastic forming the melt into the general shape and solid forming two main categories: the melt molding is the plastic heating to above the melting point, so that at the molten state for molding the way, is such a molding method of molding process mainly injection molding, compression molding (reduced) molding, extrusion, etc.; solid phase forming is less plastic in the melting temperature to maintain a class under solid molding method, such as the production of some plastic containers vacuum molding, compressed air forming and blow molding. There are also liquid molding methods, such as casting plastic molding, slush and dip dip molding method.

    The molding method according to the different, different processes can be divided into the corresponding requirements of plastic processing mold types, mainly injection mold, extrusion mold, pressure mold plastic, blow mold, plastic mold, high foam polystyrene Ethylene forming molds.

    Injection (plastic) molds

    It is mainly the production of thermoplastic items most widely used as a mold, plastic injection mold corresponding to the processing equipment is plastic injection molding machine, plastic injection machine at the end of the first heating the barrel to heat melting, then the injection machine screw or a plunger, driven by the injection machine nozzle and mold pouring into the mold cavity systems, cooling hardening plastic molding, mold release by products. Usually forming part of its structure, gating system, oriented components, introduced institutions, thermostat systems, exhaust systems, components and other supporting components. Manufacturing materials, usually plastic mold steel module, the material used mainly for carbon steel, carbon tool steel, alloy tool steel, high speed steel. Injection molding processing methods usually apply only to the production of thermoplastic varieties of products, manufactured using injection molding process a wide range of plastic products, from daily life to all kinds of complex mechanical, electrical, transport and other parts are injection molding, and Production of plastic products it is the most widely used as a processing method.

    Plastic compression molds

    Including compression molding and injection compression molding die two structure types. They are mainly used to shape a class of thermosetting plastic mold, its corresponding equipment is pressure molding machine. Compression molding method is based plastic features, will mold heated to molding temperature (usually in the 103 -180 ), and then measure a good plastic powder into the mold cavity pressure and the feeding room, closed mold, plastic at high temperature, high pressure tends to soften the viscous flow, after a certain time after the curing stereotypes, as the shape of the required products. Pressure injection molding and compression molding is different with a separate feeding room, before forming the first closed mold, plastic, finished in warm indoor feeding was viscous flow state, under pressure and speed to squeeze into the mold cavity, curing molding. Compression mold is also used to shape some of the special hard to melt thermoplastics such as thermoplastic (such as PTFE) rough (cold forming), the optical properties of high resin lens, slightly foaming nitrocellulose car steering wheels . Compression molds mainly by the cavity, feeding cavity, oriented institutions, introduction of components, heating systems and other components. Pressure injection molds are widely used in packaging electrical components area. Manufacture of compression molds and injection molds used in the same material.

    Plastic Extrusion Tooling

    Is used to produce a continuous shape forming a kind of plastic products mold, also known as extrusion head, is widely used in pipes, rods, filaments, sheets, film, wire and cable coating, profiles and other processing. Their corresponding production equipment is plastic extrusion machine, the principle is solid plastic in the heating and rotating screw extruder melt under high pressure, plastics, die by a specific shape made of the same shape of cross sections and die continuous plastic products. The main material of carbon steel, alloy tool steel, and some out of the mold parts will need to wear a wear-resistant materials such as diamond inlay. Extrusion processing technology normally only used in the production thermoplastic varieties of products, its structure and injection molds and pressure modeling has obvious difference.

    Plastic Blow Mold

    Is used to molding hollow plastic container class products (such as beverage bottles, cosmetic packaging supplies and other containers) of a mold, blow molding process principle in the form mainly by extrusion blow molding, injection blow molding hollow , injection blow molding extension (commonly known as “injection stretch blow”), multi-layer blow molding, sheet molding, blow molding hollow. Hollow blow molding products corresponding to the device commonly known as plastic blow molding machine, blow molding is only applicable to the production of thermoplastic varieties of products. Blow mold structure is more simple, more than the materials used to manufacture carbon steel.

    Plastic Forming Mold

    Is a plastic plate, sheet material as raw material, some of the more simple plastic molding a mold, the principle is the use of vacuum or compressed air forming method of forming methods to fix the die or punch on the plastic plates, sheets, in case of heating to soften the deformation of the mold cavity attached to get the required shape products, mainly for some daily necessities, food, toys packaging products production. Plastic mold for low pressure molding, the die cast aluminum or non-metallic materials and more materials used, the structure is relatively simple.

    High foam polystyrene mold

    Is the application of expandable polystyrene (made of polystyrene and foam particles composed of bead-like) all the necessary raw materials for forming the shape of a mold foam packaging materials. The principle is that polystyrene can be made by blowing steam into the mold shape, including simple manual hydraulic press mold and mold are two types of straight-foam is mainly used to produce industrial products packaging products. Manufacture of such materials are cast aluminum molds, stainless steel, bronze, etc..

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3D illustration is the representation of an object in the virtual 3D world. It is very effective for displaying and communicating design ideas for various types of projects. Many times, a simple image on a paper is not a true representation of that object and many aspects may be missing. In such cases, 3D illustrations are very helpful for displaying what the object actually looks like.

3D illustration can be a very useful tool for many types of businesses. For marketing firms, 3D illustrations are essential for making logos and promotional campaigns. In today’s world the logo of a product makes a big difference in its success and a 3D logo is something that stands out and catches people’s attention.

3D illustration is also very helpful for production firms. Before a product is finalized, it has to be designed and finalized. One of the best ways to do this is through 3D modeling which can help build up a close prototype of the product. In this way, any design and functional flaws can be identified before the product is finalized.

Engineering firms can also greatly benefit from 3D illustration. They can use this technology for making engineering models which can greatly help in the development phase of any engineering project. 3D illustration will help expose any design flaws and lay down a foundation on which the actual work is to be done.

Many garment manufacturers are using 3D illustration for their customers. These illustrations can help the customers see the finished product virtually from all angles before finalizing a sale. This is helpful for the manufacturers because it helps finalize the end product.

3D illustrations are most widely used in architecture firms. Drawing manual sketches of designs and layouts are a thing of the past and nowadays everything is being done through computers. 3D illustration can help the clients get a real feel of the architectural design before it is built so that they can design and change accordingly. It is also extremely helpful for architects to understand the plans and layouts. This makes their work much easier and helps increase customer satisfaction.

 

The 3d laser engraving process uses a computer guided laser to precisely engrave 3D images within optically perfect laser crystal. Initial efforts produced 3D images engraved inside a solid piece of optically perfect laser crystal without damaging the crystal block surface.Refinements have added 2D images (pictures of people or things),text, 3D heads and other 3D objects. Additional advancements created our latest offerings, 2 1/2D sub-surface laser engraving.2 1/2D is a unique merger of 3D and 2D laser engraving which produces the highest quality laser engraved image with unmatched quality and clarity.

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