Universal Enclosure

The client is considered a market leader for products to enhance quality of life for people with disabilities and special needs. Hillside Design were asked by the client to investigate if it was feasible to rationalise a number of products across the client’s product range into a single enclosure for the purpose of creating an updated product range with a unified appearance. 

HPDL carried out a mechanical survey of those products and prepared a CAD assembly containing all the internals of each of the products. Analysis of this assembly suggested it would be feasible to configure an enclosure with a multitude of internal mounting points and an interchangeable side panel to accommodate the various in/out connections. This arrangement would meet all the clients’ requirements and would have a degree of future proofing allowing future product versions to use the same enclosure.

HPDL prepared a number of CAD concepts to explore the arrangement, and these were reviewed as 3D printed prototypes throughout the client company and its departments to sign of each product build and identify any adjustments.

Once the feedback had been reviewed a further set of high-resolution 3D printed prototypes were prepared and these were used for sign off. Once sign off had been agreed HPDL prepared full 3D CAD data and 2D control drawings and oversaw the commissioning of the tooling, sample evaluation and sign off.