The Stack Master development story continues with Industrial Design, Product Design, Virtual Testing, Prototyping, Prototype Testing and Prototype Redesigns (we like to call them enhancements). If you are new to the story, check out our past posts:

Development Project Introduction

New Product Research

Feasibility Analysis, Customer Needs and Design Tools

You will be caught up quickly and enjoy this post.

Industrial Design

The preliminary design was based off our competive and market needs, customer needs, and our designer’s creativity.  After presenting the concepts to the CEO of PaperPro, we decided on a product direction.  We created several variations of the direction and the Uber Fusion Curves won overall.

Product Design & Virtual Testing

We identified the critical components of the technology that needed to be designed them in Solidworks.

We knew that we had to scale up the power spring (to 100 pages) without requiring too much more force.  But how much?  Well COSMOS answered that question through our virtual testing.  We created a graph based on those results showing the relationship between thickening the spring and the force of the spring.

Prototyping

With a good understanding of the product design and an updated CAD virtual prototype we sent The Stack Master off to China to be prototyped.  We used clear stereo lithography, a common practice because it allows you to see into the prototype and observe the mechanism working.

Prototype Testing

Testing the Stack Master prototype was quick, informative and effective.  The striker (part that shoots the staple) and other plastic parts needed to be metal didn’t last long, so we commissioned those parts to be made by CNC machining.  This lead to more testing, but it wasn’t long before we had a decent list of required enhancements.

The enhancements should be organized to maximize an effective solution to the cause of the issue. A format that we use is

1. Part, organize the changes by major part
2. Issue, what went wrong?
3. Cause, why did it go wrong?
4. Resolution, how are we going to fix it?

Sometimes it is easier to answer questions three and four with a graphical illustration.  An example of the visualization that we used is:

Once we had a good idea of the issues and ways to improve the prototype, we began the engineering changes.

More to come on our Prototype as we prepare for production and market launch.

Welcome to the ongoing development saga of the Stack Master 100 for Paper Pro.  We have done our competitive research, defined the product goals and assembled our team.  Now things are picking up speed, but Will it Work?  What does the customer want? and How are we going to work together?  This post will go through and discuss our answers to these questions.

Feasibility - Paperpro’s one touch system “fires” staples through sheets of paper requiring very little force.  Although PaperPro had an existing stapler that could do 60 pages, we needed to know if the technology would penetrate 100 sheets, if the staplers would deform through 100 sheets, and if staples could close after penetrating.  We didn’t yet have a prototype of the Stack Master, but we did have the 60 page stapler.  So we made some minor modifications to the technology and tested several staple possibilities.  The tests showed that the technology could “fire” a staple through 85 pages and with some design changes, we believed that it could easily go through 15 more pages.  Testing required using what we had, tailoring it to the best of our ability and using many different types of staples.

Customer Needs (in engineering terms)- Now we needed to translate the customer needs into engineering metrics.  This step is used in many product development processes, including the House of Quality and the Pough Analysis.  This step requires taking what the product goals are and aligning engineering metrics and values with the desired outcome.

Design Tools- A team large or small, close or far, experienced or novice need to communicate.  This means using the same software, the same analysis strategies, the same document sharing technology and the same project management matrix.  This needs to be spelled out and agreed upon at the very beginning.  There might be some resistance to for example upgrade Solidworks, but that upgrade cost could be potentially dwarfed by a 10X increase in design hours dealing with the discrepancy.  Organization of the file sharing is critical between team members and needs to be enforced.  The design tools were agreed upon as follows:

• FTP site to share documents
• CAD file revisions sorted by date
• Solidworks 2005 / 2006 for CAD
• COSMOS finite element analysis for Solidworks
• Goodman fatigue analysis where appropriate
• Microsoft Excel project management matrix
• EMS diagrams detailing structural integrity

Just like the other PaperPro posts, this is meant to be a guideline for your invention / product development.  As the times change different document sharing technology exists, (we use wiki’s now) and new CAD software exists but the lesson is getting everyone on the same page at the very begining.  These lessons exist throughout all of these steps, test the technology early with anything you have and quantify your customer needs in engineering terms.

As a continuation of the PaperPro Story, we will dive into the details of the first few steps Flashpoint Development executed during the development of the Stack Master 100 (aka 3000).  This post will focus on the early market assessment of the 3000 for both PaperPro and the external stapler industry and the formation of the development team.

PaperPro’s internal product offering analysis showed that the 3000 contained features (100 page capacity) and a price point ($30-$40) that fit.  No other PaperPro staplers could staple 100 sheets of paper and the price point was proven by PaperPro’s current products on the market.  Conversations with existing customers and sales representatives displayed demand for a product with these traits.

The competition was researched online and purchased for evaluation.  Although the competition had some of the functionality (100 page capacity) and sleek look, none have integrated both concepts into a single product.

The market research further defined the product goals:

1. Priced Competitively
2. Look high quality and different
3. Have a PaperPro family resemblance
4. Not look like an average stapler (competition)
5. Superior Functionality

With these goals and the market research in mind, Flashpoint Development gathered the required skills from our established network of freelance professionals to complete the project.  The work structure was created to utilize Flashpoint Development as an external product development department closely coordinating with the V.P. of  New Product Development, the CEO and an in-house engineer.  Flashpoint utilized engineers, designers, prototype makes, manufacturers in Asia.

With our team assembled, the preliminary market research completed and the product development goals defined, we were ready to start development.  Tune in for the next chapter of this story next week.

This is the story of a 14 month adventure in which an idea was developed into a production ready product by Flashpoint Development currently sold at Costco, Amazon and other office equipment retailers. The idea was a stapler using Paper Pro’s One Touch™ spring designed system in an ‘executive’ design that could staple 100 pages. Under direction of the VP of Product Development, Flashpoint Development executed the industrial design, computer-aided-design (CAD), prototyping construction and testing leading up to the mold development.

With no previous stapler design experience our staff immersed themselves in competitive products, customer feedback and sales representative input. The market segmentation confirmed the opportunity for the 3000 and defined the product from the customer’s and PaperPro’s perspective. FlashPoint designed a feasibility analysis maintaining the current patent protection of PaperPro which also provided positive results.

The 3000 looked promising from these early-stages and with PaperPro’s approval we began the industrial design. The Heritage design was chosen and the Uber Fusion Curves variation was selected for prototyping. Based on these designs we began the computer aided design that integrated our industrial design with the technology variations from our feasibility analysis.

3000 version 1.0 was prototyped in China with existing partners and was tested under extreme office operation. Enhancements were identified, designed and prototyped leading up to a design that was created into a production mold ready for the market.

For more information on the PaperPro refer to our Product Development Blog as we will go into detailed steps of each major phase of the project, start to finish.