Situation
Pressing market demand for an IoT product caused an innovative startup (WaterGuru to reach out to Fusion Design for help in bringing their product to market.
They requested support in the following areas:
Complex plastic part enclosure design
Water sealing management
Repeatable and accurate performance needs
Consumer ease of use
Plastic mechanism design and test
DFM
Manufacturing assembly and test tooling
Solution
Image source: WaterGuru (used with permission)
Fusion Design helped design a plastic housing with embedded electronics that measures and reports water needs to an app on the user’s phone. A particular challenge was making everything watertight since it lives in a pool environment. Another challenge was making the product easy to use by the consumer, including replacing the batteries. Specialized materials were required to measure chlorine and acid levels and those elements needed to be delivered and installed in an easy-to-use cartridge design. All electronics, including system controls, wireless communications, LED indicators, batteries, and drive motor, had to be in tightly sealed compartments. Ensuring that it was watertight yet serviceable was a significant challenge.
With our extensive 3D mechanical development environment and fabrication shop, we did rapid experimentation and mock-ups of the various functional elements such as the removable cover for battery replacement. Fusion Design provided the mechanical system solutions, prototyping, detailed plastic part design, safety support, and wiring management, all in a compact unit.
Impact
With the assistance of Fusion Design, WaterGuru evolved the device to an award-winning product that is selling very well in the swimming pool marketplace. Today, it is manufactured in large quantities.
