Pioneer Research® Dives Deeper into 3D design
with Pro/ENGINEER®
New Underwater Camera Among ‘Most Amazing Inventions of 2005’– TIME® Magazine
Pioneer Research, Moorestown, New Jersey
For 25 years, Pioneer Research has designed and manufactured the world’s most popular underwater cameras and accessories. In 1993, the company introduced the SeaLife digital camera, which revolutionized underwater photography, making it easier to take top quality photos of all the beauty that sea life has to offer. Today, Pioneer Research offers a wide array of cameras and accessories for explorers of the underwater world, and claims a 60% share of the market for cameras used by snorkelers and divers–amateurs and professionals alike.
The Challenge: Cut the Innovative Camera’s Time-to-Market
To meet market demand for a compact, lightweight, and full-featured underwater digital camera, Pioneer Research needed to develop a housing that would protect the inner camera so it would be fully waterproof, and withstand water pressure at depths up to 200 feet. Ergonomics and ease of use were a must, as were innovative features that would improve picture quality, even in lowlight underwater conditions. And, without fail, the camera had to be on the market in time for the 2005 holiday shopping season. Bottom line: there was no time to lose.
The Solution: ‘Right the First Time’ with Pro/ENGINEER
By designing the camera's protective housing with Pro/ENGINEER, Pioneer Research was able to quickly develop precision prototypes–well before tooling began. With stereo lithography parts generated directly
from the Pro/ENGINEER files, everything fit together perfectly–the first time –which made it easy to build rubber molds and then produce multiple precision working models. The company was able to remain on schedule by conducting market research, product testing, and firmware development simultaneously with the tooling.
The Result: Record Sales, Huge Publicity for SeaLife DC500
Using Pro/ENGINEER, Pioneer Research created a radically new design that’s not only more compact than any previous underwater camera, but also easier to control, with its ergonomic controls and large, 2-inch LCD screen. Thanks to the optimized product development project, the new camera not only met the sales window, but the entire 2005 production run sold out to dealers in just a few weeks. The SeaLife DC500 captured the imagination of the diving market and was even featured on the cover of TIME. Magazine.
Job 1: Switch from SolidWorks® to Pro/ENGINEER®
When Nate Bloch joined Pioneer Research in mid-2004, he inherited a camera housing design project that had been started by another engineer. “My predecessor had used SolidWorks CAD software for some preliminary
styling exercises,” Bloch said. “But, based on my experience in using Pro/ENGINEER, I was convinced that it was better suited because of the ability to use a top down design methodology." Bloch persuaded Pioneer Research to acquire a license of Pro/ENGINEER before he came to work for the company. Management readily agreed, and he quickly restarted the project, which eventually led to the highly successful SeaLife DC500, an innovative new underwater camera that is compact, lightweight, and waterproof down to 200 feet. However, the market for underwater cameras is highly competitive, and Bloch faced an aggressive product development schedule. Pioneer Research wanted the camera on dealer shelves by the fall of 2005, in time for the crucial holiday shopping season. For Bloch, it was sink or swim. From a design standpoint, the camera’s housing needed to keep out moisture and withstand pressure. It had to be stylish and easy to grip, and most importantly, it needed to fit snugly over an existing digital camera–but not too snugly.
Getting it Right the First Time
It turns out that waterproofing a camera is the easy part, since it’s simply a matter of engineering tight seals and gaskets on the housing. In fact, the deeper the diver goes with the camera, the stronger the seals become. The real challenge is in engineering a housing that can withstand water pressure, which can cause the housing to deform and damage working parts on the inner camera. Fortunately, the inner camera had been designed with Pro/ENGINEER, making it easier to create the housing. “So I took the camera designer’s Pro/ENGINEER files and copied their surfaces and their parts, and created cradles with perfect alignment, and then built in clearances for all the deformations,” Bloch said. He took a top down design approach in developing the SeaLife DC500. “If you don’t use a top down approach, you’re really designing in the dark. With a top down approach, you’re going to get it right the first time. By using Pro/ENGINEER’s top down design tools, you can plan your design more effectively and efficiently. Because you have all the right tools to plan out your design, it is easier to make sure it is right the first time.” Bloch noted. As it turned out, that is exactly what happened – instead of undergoing a series of design, model, test, and redesign cycles, the housing was, indeed, right the first time. “I started with a skeleton, developed the surfaces I was going to use, put in axes for the screw bosses, and so on. The part files were then sent out to drive the development of plastic SLA models, and everything fit together perfectly,” Bloch added. Because of that perfect fit, the model makers were able to make rubber molds from the assembled SLA parts. After only two molding iterations, they were then able to make five working prototypes that were waterproof and aesthetically pleasing enough for testing and marketing purposes. “Having just two prototypes at this stage is pretty much unheard of,” Bloch said. “Prototypes are expensive, and so this saved
us a lot of money and a lot of time.”
Photorendering Helps Market New Camera
In the past, full working prototypes were not available until after tooling had been completed. In this case, three months before tooling was completed, Pioneer Research was able to test the prototypes for usability underwater, and also create images of the product for brochures and other promotional purposes using the powerful photorendering capabilities in Pro/ENGINEER.
Early Prototypes Accelerated Sales
Conducting testing, firmware development, and marketing concurrently with tooling and manufacturing not only kept the project on schedule, it also jump-started sales, because marketing could show the product in advance of production. “Without the capabilities provided by Pro/ENGINEER, we never would have made our schedule,” Bloch said. Dealers plunked down orders at such a high rate that the entire production run of DC500s for 2005 was sold out by early September. The SeaLife DC500 took off in the media as well, making the cover of TIME Magazine, which named the camera one of the “Most Amazing Inventions of 2005." It was even featured in an episode of the CSI: New Yorktelevision drama.
