chris loughnane

how engineers + designers should use Evernote

They should use it like I do. Or, if you prefer more delicate wording: I am an engineer, I use Evernote and I like to think I use it well. For those who may not be familiar, Evernote (whose motto is ‘Remember Everything) is a freemium multi-platform note taking service that has been around for [...]

Tagged as: getting things done, productivity

notes on micromolding

A while back we had a visit from a top-flight micromolder. Below are my notes I probably should have put this up a while back, but it slipped. Truth be told, the only reason I’m putting it up now is as an example for how I use Evernote. Still, the information is wortwhile… MTD (Micro [...]

Tagged as: Injection Molding, manufacturing

flow in product design (with music to get you there)

Flow: a state of concentration or complete absorption with the activity at hand and the situation. It is a state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter -Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience As designers and engineers, we are at our best in flow. Once we have fully [...]

Tagged as: product design, productivity

rubber material tradeoffs

Going through a rubber design guide I snagged from MN Rubber a while back, I saw this nifty chart. A great way of communicating information. Manufacturers looking to create a design guide (in addition to engineers for more obvious reasons) should definitely check out this. The GE injection molding design guide doesn’t suck either.

Tagged as: product design, rubber

on Quirky

About a year ago I wrote about Quirky. I had a few criticisms (with some lauding sprinkled in), primarily that they were just a generic design firm with a sales funnel that took advantage of people’s ideas while giving them only token involvement. Well apparently Quirky has a TV show. The TV show itself isn’t [...]

Tagged as: product design, quirky

engineering sets the pace

This is in regards to continuous deployment of software projects, but it’s enough to make you drool if you imagine being able to do this with physical products… engineering sets the pace. We get shit done, we get it done fast, it goes into production within 15 minutes of pushing it to master (feels like [...]

Tagged as: agile, product design

Reaction Injection Molding (RIM) design guide

I’ve written before about reaction injection molding as it pertains to memory foam. Recently I’ve had occasion to dive back into it, and have found the following design guide to be pretty helpful. (notify me if the link ever breaks, I’ve got the PDF locally). Much of it is really basic (i.e. outside corner of the [...]

Tagged as: foam, Injection Molding, RIM

the myth of the sole inventor

I wrote recently about the current debate on the efficacy of our patent system in “When Patents Attack“. It was a good listen in and of itself, but the Economist followed up with a strong article you can find here. From the article: [S]urveys of hundreds of significant new technologies show that almost all of [...]

Tagged as: IP

international patents (MPEP 1801)

(If you are considering studying for the patent bar exam checking out my patent bar review exam questions) The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT): Lets you file a single international application that counts as a ‘normal’ patent in all treaty-participating states (USPTO uses the term “Contracting States“) Typically, you would file a domestic patent first. Then [...]

Tagged as: IP

beware clever designs

If you think something is clever and sophisticated, beware; it is probably self-indulgence. -Donald Norman

Tagged as: Donald Norman, product design

what you’re reading is important

It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it -Oscar Wilde

aristotle on brainstorming

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. -Aristotle

Tagged as: brainstorming, product design

when to use nonlinear finite element analysis

Dig even a little bit into the different fea packages out there and you will notice a distinction between linear and nonlinear analysis. You might then wonder under what circumstances to use linear analysis and what circumstances to use nonlinear analysis? First off, let me say that mechanically speaking, there is no such thing as [...]

Tagged as: CAD, Finite Element Analysis (FEA)

why design > marketing

The greatest thing to be achieved in advertising, in my opinion, is believability, and nothing is more believable than the product itself. -Leo Burnett

Tagged as: product design

when patents attack, and more IP stuff

I’m about 20 minutes deep into ‘When Patents Attack’ on This American Life. It’s a pretty compelling story about how the IP system works or (especially in the case of software) doesn’t work. An interesting listen, regardless of your interest in patents. If the radio story piques your interest, check out what Fred Wilson and [...]

Tagged as: patent law

FEA insights

Bob Ketelhohn (a colleague of mine) put together a pretty swell writeup over at Farm on FEA. Some of my favorite nuggets: FEA is a prototype reducing tool. It does not eliminate the need for real prototypes. Trust your gut. If it looks wrong, it probably is. Comparative analysis is your best friend. Mesh density [...]

Tagged as: Finite Element Analysis (FEA), product design

sins of minimalist design

Applying a minimalist aesthetic to something someone doesn’t need Choosing a aesthetic minimalism over environmental minimalism Designing redundant minimalist products (each product consist of less than the one before it) Ignoring nature… nothing is more minimalist. If it’s not laterally recyclable, it’s accumulative. Accumulative is maximalist. If you are having difficulty with a UI, [...]

Tagged as: Letters from a Stoic, minimalism, Walden

gaussian and mean curvature

So I’ve been doing some fancy surfacing lately and spent a few minutes digging into the math behind the surface tools. The math itself is a little esoteric, but I also came across a really nice, digestible description of gaussian and mean curvature. These are the types of curvature (along with maximum curvature) that CAD packages like [...]

Tagged as: CAD, curvature, Pro Engineer, product design, SolidWorks

tips for recyclable designs

A colleague of mine recently took a plastic design class at UMass Lowell, and was kind enough to let me flip through the notes. There is a lot of really great stuff in there, not least of which are some thoughts on what a product designer should consider when designing for recyclability. Just because something [...]

Tagged as: product design, recycle, recycling

pro|engineer (or creo, or whatever): a few more things

A bit over a year ago I wrote about problems I was having with pro|engineer (now creo) and SolidWorks. It was one of my more popular posts and inspired some passionate responses. (I also copied the image from that post even though I’m primarily going to talk about pro|engineer…lazy) Well I’ve been doing some heavy [...]

Tagged as: CAD, Pro Engineer, SolidWorks

robust CAD models

I’ve been thinking lately about what makes a robust CAD database. I considered writing down a checklist, but as projects differ I find the checklist to be overkill or incomplete, both of which render it useless. Instead I asked myself: What principles are always true when building a CAD model? Take note of my use [...]

Tagged as: CAD, Pro Engineer, product design, SolidWorks, Unigraphics

video:curvature continuity between splines in sketcher

This was birthed out of a conversation that started over at mcadcentral. The inital problem was trying to make two splines curvature continuous to each other (which this video shows how to do in a particular context), but I also end up showing the differences in C0, C1, and C2 continuity. note: it occurs to [...]

Tagged as: CAD, curavture continuity, Pro Engineer

black chromium: black hard anodizing for stainless steel

You can’t hard anodize stainless steel, I know this. But today I wished I could. I was looking for a black, low friction, wear resistant, corrosion resistant coating to put on a stainless steel part. So I looked around for a while, and came up with something similar (as far as I can tell): Black Chromium. [...]

Tagged as: black chrome, finishing, guns, plating

new vs. perfect

Imagine for a moment that a company – PP Inc. – had made the Perfect Product. That is, a product that is perfectly attuned to the human condition in the physical and emotional sense, is as cheap to produce as possible (and able to be easily switched to a new material when raw material prices [...]

Tagged as: perfect product design, philosophy, reduce

37 CFR 10 in plain english

(If you are considering studying for the patent bar exam checking out my patent bar review exam questions) This is one of a series of posts covering intellectual property. Specifically, my pursuit of translating US patent law into plain english as I study for the patent agent exam. Today I’m digesting 37 CFR PART 10 [...]

Tagged as: patent bar exam, patent law

metal injection molding (MIM) notes

There was a forum question over at Core77 about metal injection molding, and it just so happened I had an exhaustive set of notes on the process. I’ve since gotten enough follow up questions that I thought it would be worth re-posting here. We had a guy from Precision Made Products present to us [...]

Tagged as: Injection Molding, manufacturing, metal injection molding, product design

video: do lock washers actually do anything?

I regularly cruise around eng-tips to see if anything piques my interest. Today I came across this thread from ’08 regarding the efficacy of lock washers. The thread is worth reading in it’s entirety, but there here are a few highlights: From NASA fastener design manual, page 9 (bold mine): The [helical] lock washer (like the one [...]

Tagged as: fasteners

zen and the art of product development II

On Friday I exposed you to a passage from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance that artfully laid out the ambiguity inherent in product development. Well here’s another, no explanation required: “The result is rather typical of modern technology, an overall dullness of appearance so depressing that it must be overlaid with a veneer [...]

Tagged as: perfect product design, product design, zen, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

zen and the art of product development

Long-time readers will know of my affinity for Thoreau and how his thoughts can be applied to perfect product design. Well I just read the following passage in a similar-minded book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (free link | affiliate link). I’d been thinking about optimizing/restructuring product development process and this passage seemed [...]

Tagged as: perfect product design, product design, thoreau, zen, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

video: inverted peaucellier mechanism

I was recently screwing around with mechanisms for straight-line motion and came across the Peaucellier mechanism. I modeled it up and inverted it to see if I could get the straight line in a smaller footprint. There are a lot of pseudo straight-line mechanisms out there, but this one is pure.

Tagged as: linkgage, mechanism design, straight line motion

video: flexible shaft couplings

Some components (like machined flexible shaft couplings) just don’t look too awesome in photos. They need videos. Check out the video below featuring Heli-Cal.

Tagged as: couplings, mechanism design

injection molding side actions: in depth

If you don’t know what a side action is, that cool. Check out these two brief videos on how side actions work. You also would do well to check out what Protomold (parent company of First Cut) has to say about side actions here and here. Recently I had occasion to dive into mold-making [...]

Tagged as: cam, Injection Molding, plastics, product design, side action

LinkedIn InMap

A quick review of my web analytics reveals that a lot of you (my readers) are associated with some some large organizations such as MIT, Toyota, Cambridge Consultants,and Gyrus Medical just to name a few. (I hope you all enjoy it!) That being the case, I assume most of you are on LinkedIn (I am). [...]

Tagged as: infographic

video: makerbot print quality keeps getting better

Now thanks to a stepper motor upgrade to the extruder. From Makerbot Using a stepper motor to drive your extruder brings a host of advantages. Fussy DC gear motors are history: stepper motors live substantially longer as they do not have internal brushes to wear out. Stepper motors are also much more precise as the [...]

Tagged as: makerbot

“comprising” vs “consisting”

(If you are considering studying for the patent bar exam checking out my patent bar review exam questions) When examining a patent, take note of the particular language used by the author. In particular the comprising vs consisting scores high on the importance /obviousness ratio. From 2111.03 Transitional Phrases [R-3] – 2100 Patentability The transitional [...]

Tagged as: claims, IP, patent law

five phases of “done-ness”

Everyone keeps some sort of task list, be it mental or written, and those of us in product design are no different. What is different are the phases of “done-ness”. Whereas a honey-do list might include an item like “fix the toilet” which is binary (i.e. it’s either done or not done), I find that items [...]

Tagged as: product design, productivity

apple dual anodization

ismashphone reports the apple is filing a patent on dual anodization (links mine): A metal surface treated to have two anodized layers or regions may be used in electronic devices. The surface treatment may include performing a first anodization process to create a first anodized layer, removing the first anodized layer at select locations, and [...]

Tagged as: anodizing, apple, hard anodizing, product design

Escher curves

Escher curves happen early in the development process. You’ve been there. Either you or a designer sketches some loose orthographic views of a concept; everything looks like it makes sense and things will fit so you bring into CAD. Only then do the Escher curves begin to show themselves. Escher curves are what happens when [...]

Tagged as: concept development, industrial design, interdisciplinary, product design

best mechanism design library

I’ve been sitting on this one for a while, but the Kinematic MOdels for Design Digital Library (KMODDL) is probably the best collection of mechanisms and mechanism-related materials I’ve found. The site (which is shamefully difficult to come across via google, and not much easier to navigate internally) is full of images, videos, CAD, tutorials, [...]

Tagged as: mechanism design

injection molding plastic part design guide (GE)

I’ve got a treasure trove of design guides. Even when you are super comfortable with a process (like injection molding) I find it good practice to use them as a low-cost checker. So i figured I would share one of my favorite design guides, the GE Engineering Thermoplastic Design Guide. It’s a concise, 15-page guideline [...]

Tagged as: CAD, Injection Molding, plastics

MEMS: a brief introduction (MIT OCW)

This post contains my personal notes from MIT 6.777J / 2.372J Design and Fabrication of Microelectromechanical Devices, available to me through MIT OCW. what is MEMS? It stands for Micro-Electro Mechanical Systems, and it’s a manufacturing technology for tiny (think 1mm max for a whole device) things. At it’s core, it is adopted from the [...]

Tagged as: MEMS, MIT OCW

Berkeley Bionics: elegs

Some REALLY cool work coming out of Bay Area startup Berkeley Bionics. They’re mission is near and dear to my heart (my capstone project in engineering school was a bionic ankle). Just check out the video…talk about being technically awesome (in the true sense of the word) while doing real good.

Tagged as: doing good, human factors, robotics

connecting devices to the internet using mbed

About 6 months back I had an idea to connect a home appliance to the internet. I knew there had to be something out there that would enable someone without a CS degree (me) to do something like this. Sadly, I found nothing. Then today (via Joshua Newth @ Mindtribe) I come across mbed: mbed is a [...]

Tagged as: embedded systems, internet, Make: Electronics, rapid prototyping, software

four bar linkage 3 position synthesis (4min video)

I’ve had occasion to do some four bar linkages lately, and it got me thinking that it might be worthwhile to do some short screencasts on some mechanisms synthesis techniques. This video shows how to define a four bar linkage based using 3 different positions of the coupler bar (the middle bar in a four-bar [...]

Tagged as: four bar linkage, mechanism design, mechanism synthesis

how Quirky could fail

Quirky bills itself as a place for “social product development” , and at first I loved them. “Surely”, i thought “this will usher in an era where citizens take a front-and-center role in designing the products they consume. From here on out beautiful, usable, functional products will be the norm, and superfluous junk is gonzo”. [...]

Tagged as: product design, startups, venture capital

statistical tolerance analysis basics: Monte Carlo Simulation

image courtesy epcp First thing first, a Monte Carlo stack up typically uses a normal distribution as a guide for it’s simulation, so I highly recommend that you read my post on RSS Tolerance Analysis so that you understand how to derive that normal distribution in the first place. monte carlo simulation theory The theory [...]

Tagged as: monte carlo analysis, monte carlo simulation, monte carlo stack up, simulation monte carlo, tolerance analysis

designing for impact on off-road vehicles

What kind of impact can a device expect to see in an off-road vehicle? That’s the question I asked myself a while back, and after alot of research, I had nothing. It just isn’t the kind of information that you can readily google (or “wolfram” for that matter) In any case, I eventually found the [...]

Tagged as: automotive, impact, vibration

video: mechanisms, courtesy of Ralph Steiner

I’ve mentioned some great mechanism resources before, as well as supplying the 507 mechanical movements pdf. But while they really are great resources (and they are… I use them all the time!), there is something to be said for video. I submit for your consideration, the work of Ralph Steiner

Tagged as: 507 mechanisms, mechanism design, mechanisms and devices, product design

thread-forming vs thread-cutting screws

When forced to users fasteners in plastic I generally try to incorporate thread inserts into the design, but if that’s not feasible you have two choices: thread-forming screws (left) or thread-cutting screws (right). (Be-careful, people mix up the two all the time) thread-forming screws When screwed into a pre-drilled hole (spec sheets will tell you [...]

Tagged as: fasteners, thread-cutting, thread-forming

touch screens: capacitative or resistive?

A few years ago I did some design work on a piece of lab equipment that required a touch screen. Early on we had a vendor come in to help us spec the appropriate screen for the application. He touched on a lot of stuff, but one of the main ones was the difference between [...]

Tagged as: product design, touch screen, usability

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