CLIENT: Agricultural Equipment Manager
INDUSTRY: Agricultural Equipment
The client is a long established manufacturer of electric fencing products. Hillside Product Design was commissioned to design an enclosure for a solar panel and bracketry that was able to be retrofitted directly to four existing energizers from separate product ranges. The bracketry would need to be adjustable to enable each energiser to be angled to receive the optimum amount of sunlight.
The client specified that they wanted to manufacture the minimum of component parts and achieving this required a carefully considered solution as each of the existing energizers had very different features with no commonality on the mounting positions.
During the project Hillside Product Design used in-house rapid prototyped parts for product development and CNC machined parts to provide a valuable pre-production prototype to the client. This functional prototype facilitated an in depth design review and further field trials whilst having sufficient aesthetic qualities to be used for the client at trade shows. The final design had 360 degrees of pan and 90 degrees of tilt pan and fitted securely to four different energisers being able to withstand the rugged environment of farming in all weathers.
To complete the project Hillside Design prepared 3D CAD files and 2D control drawings and maintained a close liaison with the toolmaker/moulder through to production signoff.
