A case study on the design of a modular surgical instrument for removing metastases using engineering design tools

Metastatic cancer is a form of cancer stemming from a primary tumour that propagates to different organs and/or to different sites within the same organ. Studies have indicated that the chances of survival improve upon surgical removal of metastases. The overall goal of this research was to develop a modular surgical instrument that would be easy to use and manipulate and hence facilitate resection of metastases. This research forms part of a final year project carried out by a mechanical engineering student in the four-year bachelors course at the University of Malta. The basic design cycle taught in the third year of the course was employed to systematically generate the design of a novel modular surgical instrument, This was complemented by a number of hospital visits and various meetings with professionals and other stakeholders relevant to the field. Through this case-study, this paper shows how, even at a bachelors level project, the application of design tools and the continuous communication with typical end-users can lead to the development of a high-value added product which can be potentially commercialised. Other benefits of joint supervision are also discussed.peer-reviewe

Consumer product design: Patterns of innovation, market success and sustainability

This article summarizes some of the content and conclusions of the author’s recent book, Consumer Product Innovation and Sustainable Design, which discusses the innovation, design and evolution of six consumer products –bicycles, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, electric lamps, television and mobile (cell) phones – from their original inventions to the present. It discusses common patterns of innovation, how environmental concerns and legislation have influenced design, and some of the effects these products have had on the environment and society. The article also uses lessons from the successes and failures of examples of these products to draw out guidelines for designers, engineers, marketers, managers and educators on how to design successful new products and to design for the environment. It concludes with trends and sustainability challenges for future consumer product design and innovation

Cost Decision Support in Product Design

The constraints addressed in decision making during product design, process planning and production planning determine the admissible solution space for the manufacture of products. The solution space determines largely the costs that are incurred in the production process. In order to be able to make economically sound decisions, costing data support must be integrated into the decision making processes. Regarding product design, the designer must be supplied with transparent costing data, that is ready for direct application. In this paper a functional architecture for costing data support during product design, as well as a corresponding data structure are presented

Panasonic Electronic Product Design Website Using Macro Media Dreamweaver Mx

Website designing electronic products are made by Panasonic using MacromediaDreamweaver MX application program whose goal is to create a website that displaysvarious information about products which can be accessed electronically crowd, and thatconsumers who want buy electronics goods get references before buying electronic goods.Use Table, Link and others in making this program a facility has been provided byMacromedia Dreamweaver MX for in making it easy to create a web page.Bibliography : (Vii + 37 + Appendix) (1996 - 2006

Sustainability in the product design: A review of recent development based on LCA

In order to achieve sustainable product design process, aspects such of environmental, economic and social should be balanced. This paper discussed on sustainability of product design, conceptual basis of life cycle assessment (LCA), review of LCA at several product design, methodology of proposed framework and discussion on strengths and limitations of LCA. This paper proposed to develop a framework for improving the product design process based on LCA tool. The aims is to calculate potential impact of environment, eco-nomic and social aspects during product design process. For environmental aspects, LCA tool will be used. For economic and social considerations, life cycle costing (LCC) and social life cycle assessment will be applied respectively. At the end, proposed framework are able to help designers to improve product design by considering all sustainability aspects

Information Complements, Substitutes, and Strategic Product Design

Competitive maneuvering in the information economy has raised a pressing question: how can firms raise profits by giving away products for free? This paper provides a possible answer and articulates a strategy space for information product design. Free strategic complements can raise a firm's own profits while free strategic substitutes can lower profits for competitors. We introduce a formal model of cross-market externalities based in textbook economics -- a mix of Katz & Shapiro network effects, price discrimination, and product differention -- that leads to novel strategies such as an eagerness to enter into Bertrand price competition. This combination helps to explain many recent firm strategies such as those of Microsoft, Netscape (AOL), Sun, Adobe, and ID. We also introduce the concept of a ''content-creator'' who adds value for end-consumers but may not be paid directly. Similar to the case of product dumping, this research implies that both firms and policy makers need to consider complex market interactions to grasp information product design and profit maximization. The model presented here argues for three simple and intuitive results. First, a firm can rationally invest in a product it intends to give away into perpetuity even in the absence of competition. The reason is that increased demand in a complementary goods market more than covers the cost of investment in the free goods market. Second, we identify distinct markets for content-providers and end-consumers and show that either can be a candidate for the free good. The decision on which market to charge rests on the relative elasticities as governed by their network externality effects. If the externality effect is sufficiently great, the market with the higher elasticity is the market to subsidize with the free good. It is also possible to charge both markets but to keep one price artificially low. Importantly, the modeling contribution is distinct from tying in the sense that consumers need never purchase both goods -- unlike razors and blades, the products are stand-alone goods. It also differs from multi-market price discrimination in the sense that the firm may extract no consumer surplus from one of the two market segments, implying that this market would have previously gone un-served. Third, a firm can use strategic product design to penetrate a market that becomes competitive post-entry. The threat of entry is credible even in cases where it never recovers its sunk costs directly. The model therefore helps to explain several interesting market behaviors such as free goods, upgrade paths, split versioning, and strategic information substitutes.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39683/3/wp299.pd

Grid-enabled Workflows for Industrial Product Design

This paper presents a generic approach for developing and using Grid-based workflow technology for enabling cross-organizational engineering applications. Using industrial product design examples from the automotive and aerospace industries we highlight the main requirements and challenges addressed by our approach and describe how it can be used for enabling interoperability between heterogeneous workflow engines

Numerical product design: Springback prediction, compensation and optimization

Numerical simulations are being deployed widely for product design. However, the accuracy of the numerical tools is not yet always sufficiently accurate and reliable. This article focuses on the current state and recent developments in different stages of product design: springback prediction, springback compensation and optimization by finite element (FE) analysis. To improve the springback prediction by FE analysis, guidelines regarding the mesh discretization are provided and a new through-thickness integration scheme for shell elements is launched. In the next stage of virtual product design the product is compensated for springback. Currently, deformations due to springback are manually compensated in the industry. Here, a procedure to automatically compensate the tool geometry, including the CAD description, is presented and it is successfully applied to an industrial automotive part. The last stage in virtual product design comprises optimization. This article presents an optimization scheme which is capable of designing optimal and robust metal forming processes efficiently