New Case Study: Product Development for Satellite GPS Messenger

PADT recently added a new case study to our website that is worth sharing. Our involvement in the development of the new SPOT Gen3 Satellite GPS Messenger was a fantastic example of PADT bringing a wide range of engineering resources to a single project: Industrial Design, Mechanical Design, Simulation, Testing, Vendor Management, Rapid Prototyping, and Manufacturing Consulting.

Download the Case Study

In the words of the customer:

“PADT has been like an extension of our own design team and totally understood our unique product design constraints from the get go. Despite ever evolving product requirements and short design cycles, they managed to stick to their original schedule and provide a successful product design. Additionally, their ability to coordinate with our overseas manufacturing partner has proved invaluable for getting through the difficult last stages of high volume mass production.”

– Eric Blanchard, Senior Design Engineer, Globalstar Inc.”

It is always rewarding to see a product we worked on for sale to the general public:

The following for images show some of the contributions we were able to make:

First are the Industrial Design rendering along with an initial sketch. PADT worked with an Industrial Designer to realize the customer’s ergonomic and style needs.

Next is a view of the CAD model used. The entire product assembly was designed as an accurate 3D CAD model to enable faster downstream processes and meet stringent assembly and packaging demands.

The third image shows results from one of the FEA simulations done on a key component. Simulation was used to drive the design of critical components, avoiding testing and redesign further in the product development process.

And finally we share an image of one of the prototype models PADT made in house as part of this project. PADT’s in-house Rapid Prototyping capabilities were used to create multiple product models for fit, form, function, and style evaluation.

PADT can bring these capabilities, and many more, to help you bring your product to market. We can assist on the whole project or just provide resources where they are needed.