I have been wondering, this since i dont have that much experience in product design, but, who is supposed to do the case design of an electronic product? the industrial engineer or the electronic engineer? i have been trying to find the answer to this question last job i had my boss didnt want to allow me (electronic eng) to participate in the case design (i needed to ground it at least)
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\$\begingroup\$ Grounding the case for some products/designs is mandatory for safety reasons and some times EMC reasons (or both). If this is the situation the Electronic Engineer has to advise case designer of the requirement. .... then the finger can be pointed when the requirement gets repeated by the people evaluating the product to the safety standards.... \$\endgroup\$– SpoonCommented Dec 4, 2014 at 9:09
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3 Answers
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Since the aesthetics of the enclosure are often what distinguish your product in the marketplace, it is an industrial designer, not an industrial engineer, who should be doing the enclosure design. Your company may have one in-house, or hire one as a consultant.
The industrial designer will be working with any other engineers involved in the project, such as electrical, mechanical, and industrial, plus a human factors person, and will be responsible for seeing that the enclosure meets all the electrical, mechanical, and regulatory requirements of the product.
I don't see that an electrical engineer would be too involved in the initial case design, except to give to the industrial designer a BOM of all the large parts anticipated to be used in the design. Often, a case design will be influenced by whatever type of display is being used and other user interface features (buttons, etc.). There may be some back and forth between the EE and the industrial designer on some of these components.
After a case design has been proposed, then the EE would need to make sure there is enough room for whatever PCB's are needed and also cutouts for connectors, that there is adequate height for tall components, and any thermal considerations are taken care of.
The industrial designer will typically render models of the enclosure using a 3D CAD program like SolidWorks. Programs like this can usually exchange files with PCB layout programs like Altium Designer, for example, to make sure mechanical features of a PCB like a cutout for a mounting post like up exactly.
3D modelling programs can be used to design enclosures that will be produced either in metal or plastic. Prototypes are usually made using 3D printing. Later, instructions for making a mold or CNC instructions for making a metal enclosure can be output from the CAD program.
When designing the enclosure, it is important for the industrial designer to keep manufacturing costs in mind; adding additional complexity to a mold can easily cost an extra $10,000.
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In this case your boss dictated the terms, and you live with them. The EE should specify whether there are any specs that need to be met by the case, hand it off, and review it prior to production. It's all one team.
answered Dec 4, 2014 at 11:44
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Ideally, multiple people would be involved in the case design. In your case, you were worried about grounding. But you might also be concerned about heat dissipation, the strength of the enclosure, ease of manufacturing the case, assembly processes, the cost of the case, safety standards, etc. It would be highly unlikely, even if you work at a small company, that one person would be responsible for all of these items.
Now, it isn't unreasonable for your boss to have an industrial engineer take the lead on the case design but that person should be getting input from electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, purchasing, QA, etc. in the design. If your boss didn't allow you to participate at all in the case design, then that is highly questionable.
