FEBRUARY 10, 2021
Suez is a multinational company that develops products and services for a very wide range of industrial needs in relation to water. Suez’s Boulder Colorado office contacted us to help with a redesign of their Total Organic Carbon Analyzer which is used to test the purity of water at an ultra-high level. This equipment is used in facilities that produce computer processor chips that require high water purity for production.
Suez was redesigning their TOC analyzer to use newer technology, including a wireless communication system. They looked to Bullseye Design Worx to provide a full range of Industrial Design activities from Concept Development to Product Branding to 3D CAD modeling of plastic injected molded parts.
We started the Product Design Process by first understanding the current product and the competitor’s product offerings. Then we identified the opportunities and limitations of the new design such as materials and product proportions that would allow the new design to fit in the same space on a wall as the prior unit so that the customer would not need to rearrange several connections and other related equipment.
From there we started to look for a theme to explore for Design Concepts. Since Suez is all about water, we turned to water for the design inspiration. Flowing water, water ripples, dripping water and single water drops.
During the concept development we noticed that Suez was using a series of concentric circles in their publications and website. With this and some of the earlier water themes we progresses with a design that blended a shallow convex surface with a series of polished concentric rings on an other wise textured surface. The overall form was kept simple and only covered the stainless-steel enclosure where needed to help keep the product water resistant.
The design theme was also carried over to the side where samples would be introduced to the machine manually.
Once the design concept was narrowed down and refined the 3D CAD Modeling began. From the beginning, there was always the knowledge that the design had to be tailored of plastic injection molding. We used consistent wall thicknesses, proper draft and minimized interior support ribs to avoid shrink marks on the exterior. Screw bosses and rib features were all modeled in for the client.
