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BOC Australia are manufacturers, distributors and retailers of a variety of gases used in industrial, hospitality and medical applications. As part of their flagship Internet of Things (IoT) project, Beacon, BOC are implementing a new asset tracking device for use on their industrial gas cylinder products. The Beacon Asset Tracker enables customers and BOC to know exactly where their cylinders are located at any given time – in transit or hidden on a large industrial site. BOC had initially defined the design of the housing and internal electronics assembly using an overseas company but were not satisfied due to the large footprint, poor aesthetics and potential internal assembly difficulties. BOC approached Scintilla to design a new housing that would be much smaller, simpler to manufacture while still accommodating the electronics, integrate with their existing barcode scanning systems and aesthetically complement their brand and cylinder fleet.
By understanding the functional and operational constraints of the asset tracker and BOC’s internal processes, Scintilla was able to redesign the housing to be a more aesthetically refined and compact product which is easier to install onto a cylinder. By considering the functionality and usability aspects of the system and working with the electronics development team, Scintilla achieved a 20% reduction in overall footprint compared to the original housing design. The housing re-design also integrated simple features into the design to aid manufacture and assembly, optimised the location of the barcode for automated scanning processes and optimised the performance of the clip attaching the device to the cylinder.
Scintilla managed the production of prototype housing units to enable BOC to complete functional testing of the housing design to verify clip attachment and compatibility with their automated barcode scanning processes.
Through our involvement in this project Scintilla was able to streamline the product development process, reduce the number of design iterations and time to manufacture and deliver a product optimised for functional performance and manufacture.
It’s been a pleasure working with Scintilla over the past few months. Their professionalism, patience and dedication to our projects has been second to none. They have seamlessly integrated themselves into the BOC team, quickly understood our challenges and delivered a great solution in a very short timeframe.
