Model Builders Inc Blog

How successful product development was done with a model shop's help.

Posted by Hal Chaffee on Sat, Jan 11, 2014 @ 11:32 PM

Frequently a company or individual needs more expertise than they have  when working on the development of a new product especially in the creation of physical prototypes. The design, material selection, tool expertise and more may require the knowledge and skills of expert model makers to increase the odds of product success.

Let's take a look at how the Aluminum Extrusions, Inc. in Charlotte, Michigan got help from Model Builders, Inc. that was crucial to the development of their new wall hung Executive or Conference size board product sold by OMNI Products, Inc. That Visual Idea Center product, last known as the OMNIVIC II, sold well for over 30 years.

 OMNIVIC II Executive Conference Board Closed

Aluminum Extrusions, Inc. was looking to sell more aluminum extrusions and thought that developing a new conference board product that used aluminum extrusions in its construction might be a good idea to expand one of their office furniture conference board product lines from just heavy wood construction with piano hinges to a much lighter product that was primarily aluminum construction.

Using in house personnel Aluminum Extrusions, Inc. developed the product as far as they could. Then their industrial designer, Bob Vogele, found and worked with Bill Chaffee of Model Builders, Inc. to further develop the Visual Idea Center product idea.

Conference board OMNI VIC II


Bob and Bill came up with the final design and Model Builders, Inc. fabricated the prototype for the aluminum framed VIC product which only weighed about 100 lbs. whereas the current all wood framed Visual Idea Center weighed over 150 lbs. The new aluminum framed model could also have a laminate material in a variety of finishes applied to the front of the two light weight core doors as shown in the first picture above. Furthermore Model Builders, Inc. was responsible for sourcing and inspecting the materials for the first 100 units.

One of the amazing features of these boards is that Bob Vogele and Bill Chaffee developed a continuous patented hinge by changing the shape of the two vertical extrusions where the door panel meets the wall mounted panel. Then a custom single gray plastic extrusion could connects the front panel to the wall panel .This gave the conference board a very clean modern look and eliminated the need for the piano hinge which made assembly faster since the hinge screws weren't needed. Furthermore the door panel connection to the wall mounted panel easily passed the weight stress test.

Visual Idea Center hinge

DSC07312 resized 600Patented hinge with two aluminum extrusions and a plastic extrusion in the middle.

Other functions and design details were incorporated that also made the VIC II as widely popular as it was.

Conference board features

Hiring a model shop to work with you on product development should add a new dimension to the discussions and increase the odds of creating a successful product. Don't bring a model shop in for an appearance model at the end. Get the model shop involved with the product development at the start. Their expertise will greatly improve the final product.

Model Builders, Inc. is known for helping industrial designers, manufacturers and others go from idea to reality. Take the next step by contacting us at Model Builders, Inc., 773-586-6500 or info@modelbuilders.net .

Tags: product model, engineering model, prototype, training aids, industrial designer, prototype models, training aid, industrial design, product development, prototype model