2nd Year - Practising Product Designer

Design for Manufacture

The final project for the first term of the practising product designer module was the design for manufacture project.

Paul Wilgeroth introduced us to the project, which entailed the adaptation of one of our previous products to create a design which had a highly detailed scheme for manufacture. We were set the brief of creating a product that was efficient for manufacture with sensible manufacturing methods depending on the the product type and quantity that was to be created.

I decided to continue my work on my Sedna LED lighting panel designs, as I believe it had a good potential for sales and that it would be suited to be in a range of panel products.

I began by outlining my ideas for the development of the idea, concluding that I would add another flat display to the panel range, allowing the range to be far more versatile.

My next step was to optimise the design to be efficiently manufactured. I first researched a variety of manufacturing processes which would be suitable for the parts of my product. After a tutorial with Paul, I decided that the heat sink design was only really possible by an extrusion process. The panels could easily be stamped, laser cut or even water jet cut to add the required graphics to them, the acrylic diffusion plate could be easily etched on a laser cutter or even a 3D router and the LED’s were standard Sedna LED parts. My design included no fastening methods, nor did it include adhesives as the design could easily snap together and then snap back apart again. The majority of the parts were also made of easily recyclable aluminium and the Sedna LEDs are specifically energy efficient meaning the product had a focus towards being eco-friendly.

Overall, I was very happy with my outcome for the design for manufacture module and my feedback was also very positive, with the only drawbacks being the idea to focus on a recyclable alternative to acrylic. I feel that this project, along with the Sedna LED project benefited me most due to their technical nature and emphasis towards creating a technological product for manufacture.