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Charles River Laboratories worked with ProtoCAM to quickly develop a handheld medical test device to be used for scientific testing on NASA Space Shuttle flights. The device would be used during space flights to perform microbiological tests on horseshoe crabs.

Design for Manufacturability for Hand Held Device

Charles River Laboratories approached ProtoCAM with a very good preliminary design for this test device and needed to get the instrument into production quickly to meet NASA's timeline. ProtoCAM's engineers were able to use their vast experience with design for manufacturability and DFM engineering to suggest a few design improvements pertaining to the manufacturability of the device. Specifically in this design, which was fit and functionally well done, ProtoCAM suggested form improvements to the design, such as:

• Resizing and moving some of the ribs in the interior of the product
• Adjusting the angle of draft
• Increasing the wall thickness slightly to avoid sink indentations during molding

The end result was a stronger piece that was easier and less costly to manufacture.

The device consisted of 4 plastic components along with the printed circuit board and keypad. Using stereolithography, ProtoCAM created SI 50 SLA prototypes for testing with the electronic components. No RTV molds were needed. ProtoCAM did the rapid tooling to move quickly into the injection molding production process to produce about 2000 sets. The entire process was completed in less than 5 weeks.

Charles River Laboratories' handheld medical test device prototyping was completed within the project schedule and was deployed into production in timely fashion. The Endosafe™ device was successfully used at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and in NASA's space shuttle for microbiological testing of horseshoe crabs.

Key Benefits of Working with ProtoCAM

• Fast turn-around
• Product engineering expertise in design for manufacturability, reducing costs and time to market while making the product work and look better
• Experience with handheld devices, electronic devices, and medical devices
• Design confidentiality (Permission was granted from Charles River Laboratories for this case study.)

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