The devil is in the details
Design World’s annual Casebook is one of our favorites. After all, there are few things more satisfying than a well-detailed application story about how a certain set of components and systems solved a specific set of requirements.
Such case studies are notoriously hard to procure, in large part because machine builders and end users often want the specifics of their solutions to be kept under wraps. Non-disclosure agreements can be particularly onerous when the applied technologies are proprietary or procured for a sensitive industry.
The best application stories that Design World gets — including those in this 2024 Casebook — detail the initial conversations about the problems a given manufacturer or plant was initially having. They also detail other solutions that were tried (with limited success), considered as alternatives, or rendered obsolete by new options. For some examples of the latter, check out the piece from George Osterhout for Orion Industries (page 36) on how automation and robotics have advanced how functional industrial coatings are applied and used. The results have included better precision of coating processes, lower costs, and improved product performance.
These days, there’s almost always some customization to optimize the chosen solution. A great example of this is detailed in the mk North America case study (page 8) that details how a custom conveyor based on hugger-style VersaFlex flat-top offering let one end user add an arch through which plant personnel can walk. What’s particularly interesting here is how the conveyor isn’t really a safety system… and yet, the overall design serves as a risk-mitigating arrangement to keep personnel safe from injury.
Finally, case studies can often help make fundamental engineering technologies easier to understand. This year, Hurley Gill of Kollmorgen, A Regal Rexnord Brand, supplied us with a piece that uses the example of automotive cruise control to delve into how servosystems today work and are defined in different contexts related to closed-loop systems.
We hope that you find this year’s application stories inspiring and that they inform your approach to design work. May they spark new ideas, warn of common pitfalls, and celebrate a bit of all the innovation that happens behind the scenes.
Thank you for reading.
Lisa Eitel
linkedin.com/in/elisabetheitel
Filed Under: DIGITAL ISSUES • DESIGN WORLD
