Lab-Aids, Light Station

 

Services

• Industrial Design: Product Concept Sketches, 3D Modeling/Rendering, Mockups/Prototypes 

• Product Development: Sourcing & Development

• Manufacturing: Production Management, Safety Testing Management, Quality Control

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The Challenge

Lab-Aids needed help redesigning an existing product into a more elegant solution. Our team worked as the go-between for the client, a client-contracted optical engineer, and the factory. The original product, designed to teach kids how light works using interchangeable filters, was quite large, required an electrical outlet, and had an incandescent bulb.
 

• After losing contact with their original factory, the client no longer had access to the molds and needed help redesigning the product from the bottom up

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• The original design required ample space around the incandescent lightbulb to ensure the plastic surrounding the bulb wouldn’t melt in the heat. The new solution needed to be as space-efficient as possible, ideally with a cooler, energy-efficient LED

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• Client requested assistance with production management, safety testing, and quality control

 

The Solution
Our team acted as project manager, collaborator, industrial designer, and manufacturing oversight to ensure an optimal reiteration of the product.

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• Improved user-experience: The re-engineered product, which is battery powered with a LED light and a significantly smaller footprint, presents a more elegant solution in a compact and efficient form factor:

  • Teachers can store more light stations in less space, potentially encouraging a higher purchase volume from schools

  • No hazardous cords running across the classroom

  • Simplified unit eliminates repeated multi-step set-up, allowing more time to be spent on education

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• Lowered product costs by:

  • Leaning on a longstanding factory relationship to negotiate a competitive quote

  • Using 3D software to optimize product geometry for simplified factory tooling 

  • Minimizing production steps by molding in features which were previously assembled by hand or printed

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• Achieved superior technical performance: After achieving tight optical tolerances requested by Lab-Aids’ contracted engineer, the new light station was compared with others on the market. The new Lab-Aids’ product came out on top with the brightest and sharpest light projection on test.

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• Optimized quality control, safety, and time-to-market

  • Ensured that the proper QC checks are in place so that each light box unit performs as expected

  • Oversaw factory safety testing and ensured that all relevant safety standards were met or exceeded

  • Managed production schedules all along the way to minimize time-to-market at every step

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We’re proud of the work we did on this project, collaborating with the client, an outside engineer, and the factory to produce a more efficient, higher quality product that shines.