August 2008

NPD by Walking Around
By Mike "Don't Call me an Inventor" Rainone

(A version of this article also appears in the July issue of Product Design and Development magazine)

I have always avoided the term "inventor" just to keep an arms distance from the nutcase label. When someone asks what I do, my short version (not my "elevator" speech) is that I am a new product developer. I create and develop new products by finding and applying new technology for big companies. Now I am going to drag us all down into the mire a bit and say that often, and at its best, NPD is in fact an act of invention. Even when a new product is simply an incremental improvement, in many cases the improvement warrants a patent. Does this sound familiar folks? The truth is that I, like many of you design engineers, am an inventor.

The real question I want to explore, if explore is what I do in 1,000 words or less, is how we, as new product developers, can figure out how to become better inventors. But first, perhaps we should distinguish an inventor from a new product developer so we at least get the motivation in the right spot...

(Read full article )

Innovation Corner:Custom Designed Motors

By Talbot Presley

Each month, we will dedicate a segment of this newsletter to a featured area of expertise at PCDworks.

At PCDworks, we are always pushing the limits of today's technology in order to deliver truly breakthrough products for our clients. In the process, we're often asked to solve seemingly "impossible" motor and actuation needs - and that means we're constantly on the lookout for motors that are stronger, faster, and more efficient than anything currently on the market.

Well, you know the old adage - "if you want something done right, you've got to do it yourself," and that's just what we did: In 2006, PCDworks opened a motor design and fabrication laboratory which, over the last 2 years, has grown to include extensive analytical, modeling, and construction capabilities, and has produced some commercial motors with amazingly high power density.

On the design side, PCDworks has partnered with a developer of a motor architecture of extremely high power density (better than most on the market), to create custom motors built upon their architecture. From this architecture, we built proprietary motor design "templates" which help us create custom motor designs that are optimal for our clients' applications. Additionally, we regularly build analytical and 3-dimensional models of the motors for our customers, and optimize them through FEA and multiphysics computations.

On the construction side, we fabricate custom stators, rotors, shafts, housings, circuit boards, and motor controls in house. We then assemble these components in our motor laboratory, and test the motor prototypes on the various testing equipment such as our hysteresis brake and power supply. The electronic controls are also custom made to meet the application, and are written and built in our electronics laboratory.

Our strong motor design and construction capability has led to some truly breakthrough products that use PCDworks designed motors to optimally solve a problem which could not be solved by any off the shelf motor or actuator designs. Most importantly, the motor design lab offers clients a quicker and more cost effective way to solve seemingly impossible problems in new product development.

(For more information on PCDworks custom motor capability)

Join PCDworks at PDMA Conference

Sign Up for Mike's Full-Day Workshop

Have you ever wished you had better brainstorming and product development skills? If so, you'll want to sign up for Mike's workshop at the September PDMA (Product Development Managers Association) conference.

It promises to be a hands-on experience where participants will both learn and practice new skills to improve the output of brainstorming sessions and early product development. The full-day session will be held in Orlando, FL, on Sept. 17, 2008, and will be part of the annual PDMA conference.

Mike and other PCDworks team members will also be attending the show and hosting a booth at the vendor fair. We hope you'll stop by to visit and talk about how we can add value to your new product development efforts.

During the workshop, participants will learn new skills through lectures and discussions, and will immediately get a chance to apply and hone those skills through exercises and group analysis. The lessons on brainstorming will include how to create a strong problem definition, how to maximize serendipity (in other words - how to increase your chance of 'stumbling' onto a winner design), and how to generate unique concepts. The session will also cover early product development strategies for choosing the "best" designs to pursue, and creating a plan for fast proof of concept and market feasibility.