Portfolio
Project
Miniature Electronic Gas Sensor
J and N Enterprises developed a miniature electronic gas sensor that can detect dangerous concentrations of carbon dioxide. They wanted to “productize” this circuit as a rugged, waterproof, clip-on device that could be worn like a badge.
Porticos started with the environmental and abuse requirements and a list of electronic components. From there, we provided
• On-site product definition
• Project Management
• Industrial design
• Mechanical design
• Cost-engineering
• Tooling support
• Procurement support
• On-site product definition
• Project Management
• Industrial design
• Mechanical design
• Cost-engineering
• Tooling support
• Procurement support
Porticos is pleased to have gone from idea to tooling-ready models and drawings in only three months. This product is now sold by Sensit Technologies as the "P100" Personal Gas Sensor.
Rugged Pistol Grip Accessory
The Symbol Technologies (now part of Motorola) pistol grip accessory proved to be an engineering and modeling challenge for the Porticos team. But a challenge we were excited to meet.
To create the ergonomic geometry required a high proficiency in Pro-Engineer. From an engineering perspective, the device had to be designed to pass the rugged testing that Symbol products have a reputation for. In addition, the interface to the main unit had to be simple but secure while accommodating the large number of critical interfaces. Porticos provided all of the mechanical design for this product up to the successful transition to the production manufacturing source.
Mobile Phone
Porticos was priviliged to design this ground-breaking mobile phone in the novel slider configuration. Nearly every part of this phone required us to "push the envelope" in order to achieve the desired thickness and functionality.
Porticos engineers were involved from initial concept-design through product launch and high-volume support.
The handset was wildly popular, setting a new sales record (20 million!) and spawning several succesful variants.
Ruggedized DVR
When you put a Digital Video Recorder in the trunk of a police car, you don't need it to be pretty. You DO need it survive extreme temperatures, moisture, vibrations, and high-speed collisions. The client asked that we accomplish this with an absolute minimum of tooling cost, which means machined housings.
The real challenge turned out to be temperature. The same device that functions perfectly in an Arizona summer must also do so in a Montana winter. Porticos incorporated a heating element and convective cooling system that JPS programmers were able to control based on the ambient temperature. Thermal FEA (Finite Element Analysis) allowed us to find the "hot spots" and make sure we could conduct the heat away from sensitive components.
Public Safety Audio/Visual Ensemble
The public safety A/V project showcased Porticos technical expertise and program management. There were 6 separate products that made up the complete project; main DVR unit, police car mounted wireless receiver, officer worn wireless microphone, belt clip for the wireless microphone, and a single and multi-slot charge dock for the wireless microphone.
The DVR unit was an extremely challenging device required to pass MIL 810 vibration test that required dedicated isolation damping solutions for the 4 internal hard drives. In addition, the unit was required to pass IP65 water / dust ingress. This rating was further complicated by the large numer of non-rated connectors needed (USB, RJ45, SMA, etc.) and the need for 4 large fan units. This challenge was solved using a "double" seal design where the high temperature components were thermally conducted to a multitude of cooling fins in the die cast aluminum frame. The fins were positioned in the fan airstream while the internal electronics were completely sealed from the external environment.
A couple of the major challenges for the police wireless microphone were the IP rating and the fact that the product was being designed for branding by Motorola. To meet this challenge, a TPE seal was designed that functioned as both the button interface and the main seal. LED windows required for user feedback were insert molded to prevent water / dust ingress.
RFID Reader
Porticos has developed many products for the Samsys (now owned by Sirit) portfolio. The unit shown here is a good example of the type of products. The harsh industrial environment requires IP protection. The electronic functionality requires complete RF isolation from the outside environment and between the digital and RF sections inside of the unit. The high power output for the transmitter requires creative thermal management solutions.
The solution was to integrate 3 separate sections (RF, Digital and Power Supply) within the enclosure design. Porticos conducted thermal analysis to determine the most efficient means of handling the heat dissipation without requiring force cooling (fans). The resulting housings are die cast aluminum with secondary operations for the cosmetics and critical sealing surfaces. These housings were manufactured by Porticos partner Funfiek. The final product passed all radiated emissions and thermal tests.
Rugged Laptop
When the customer wanted to develop a ruggedize variant of a product from their laptop computer line they turned to Porticos. We have had the pleasure of working on several projects with Dell over the years so they knew of our expertise in this area.
Porticos was responsible for the complete mechanical design and electronic packaging of the "hinge up" portion of the Dell Latitude ATX laptop. In addition, we developed a packaging solution to allow the hard drive to pass the stringent vibration and shock requirements typical of a rugged product. All work was completed using Pro-Engineer. Support for the project began with the receipt of ID surfaces from the customer and concluded with a successful handoff of the design database to the manufacturing partner.
MP3 Player
This client needed a very small quantity of custom MP3 players to showcase an exciting new battery technology at an industry trade-show.
Designing something to look and function like a "real" product without any high-volume tooling can be both expensive and challenging. We accepted the challenge, engineering this product to employ low-volume manufacturing techniques that avoided tooling costs and made a great-looking product.
Improved Metered Dose Inhalers
Even with advances in dry powder inhaler devices, metered dose inhalers (MDIs) remain the most widely used inhaler device to deliver pulmonary drugs to the lungs. However, these devices have seen only incremental improvements since they were introduced in the 1950s.
Porticos has experience facing the challenges of accurately dispensing suspension formulations and the other demanding requirements of MDIs. This experience has produced innovations that advance the drug delivery efficiency, ergonomics, and appeal with designs that provide real benefits to patients.
Needle Free Vaccine Delivery
BD Technologies partnered with other companies to develop a needle-free vaccine delivery system as part of a grant supported by the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative. To be viable in small villages in developing countries (where the greatest need lies), the system must not require the use of refrigeration or electricity, must be simple to administer by minimally trained personnel, must be effective on children ages 1-4 (who are not capable of cooperation) or adults, must be safe against spreading disease (by preventing re-use), must be relatively compact for shipping, must not require any special means of disposal, and finally, must have a cost per unit dose equal to or less than existing injection methods. Indeed, this is a grand challenge for engineering.
The approach pursued was to aerosolize a dose of powdered vaccine for inhalation using a simple device constructed of simple materials. BD utilized its Solovent unit dose dry powder inhaler (DPI) platform to aerosolize the powder, and needed a means of containing the cloud of vaccine and an interface for effective delivery to patients.
BD Technologies turned to Porticos for innovative engineering to help its team develop the delivery system so that it could be tested in Phase I clinical trials. Porticos provided new thinking to discover simple solutions that were easy to prototype for laboratory testing and helped BD extend its intellectual property based on the Solovent platform.
Dry Powder Inhaler Technology
Dry powder inhalers (DPIs) have provided an alternative to the longstanding metered dose inhaler and have demonstrated proven benefits. Add to that the interest over the past decade by medical and pharmaceutical researchers in utilizing the lung as the target of drug delivery, and the number of commercial opportunities for DPI products has exploded. What was once a delivery system only for respiratory drugs has now become a means for delivering medications for diabetes, pain management, influenza, and cystic fibrosis, as well as vaccines.
With so much potential revenue from DPI products, the search for viable technologies and the battle for intellectual property have been intense. Porticos has experience in developing innovative technologies for containing and protecting powder doses, and in aerosolizing and deagglomerating drug powders.
Finding novel solutions to the challenges involved with delivering a small dose of powder is another example of Porticos’ ability to help its clients meet their extreme engineering challenges.
Nuclear Medical Device
Ever wonder where radioactive medicines come from? An organic substance must be placed in front of a particle-accelerator and then irradiated. This creates the medicines and dyes use to enable such medical technologies as PET scanning.
A local inventor and entrepreneur came to Porticos with a prototype of an “Accelerator Target” that would allow fast and economical production of a radioactive medical dye. He asked us to optimize the size and function while simplifying manufacture and assembly.
In addition to accomplishing these tasks, we designed a separate “fill station” to support the device. Porticos also helped the client to put a supply-chain in place that was appropriate to the scale and schedule of his project. The product is now used in the United States and Europe.
Cargo Platform
R*O*M Corporation asked Porticos to design a deployable “side deck” for cargo trailers. The idea was to create a staging-area at the side-door, simplifying loading and unloading of cargo. The deck must support 2000 lbs and be deployable by one person within three minutes. It must be compatible with existing cargo-trailer construction.
Porticos conceived of a sturdy and lightweight mechanism that would slide out from under the vehicle and then rise up to be level with the cargo-bed. The levers used to raise it become posts for an integral safety-railing. Porticos constructed and tested the initial prototype at the client’s facility, where it easily passed their most strenuous load-testing. The production Roadwarrior Platform is a commercial success. See www.romcorp.com for videos and technical specifications.
Direct Methanol Fuel Cell
INI Power Systems pioneered a novel fuel-cell technology that converts alcohol directly into electricity. The apparatus worked well, but looked like tangle of tubing and wires on a laboratory-bench. INI realized immediately that they needed a product to show the world, so they asked Porticos to create a complete “power plant in a box” to showcase their technology.
Porticos managed to fit everything into a custom-package the size of a shoebox. Multiple tanks, pumps, compressors, PCBs, etc. are designed to maximize system-performance while occupying an impressively small volume. It was the hit of the Fuel Cell 2006 trade show.
After this success, Porticos continued to assist INI to reduce size and enhance manufacturability of the core technology. INI is now targeting military, recreational, and utility applications for their Direct Methanol Laminar Flow Fuel Cell.
PORTICOOL Personal Cooling System
Everybody has experienced the discomfort of being too warm. There are some important jobs that induce overheating so severe that it actually impairs one’s ability to move or think. It is difficult to understand just how serious this is until you have spent a few minutes inside a HAZMAT suit or “turnout-gear”, as seen here.
Today, the only solution is to limit exposure. A HAZMAT specialist is able to spend 15 to 20 minutes on a mission before he must be replaced by a colleague. The logistic costs are enormous, and the danger of physical incapacity is very real.
Porticos engineers conceived of a thin, flexible garment that would route liquefied CO2 around the body. The apparatus will induce conductive, convective, and even evaporative cooling, which implies unprecedented performance and low weight. The results looked so promising that we decided to build one.
There is not anything like this on the market: A self-contained, highly effective personal cooling system! It functions within any off-the-shelf protective garment. Cooling starts immediately, and measurably improves the performance of the wearer.
These prototypes were so successful that Porticool incorporated was born, and is now finalizing development and beginning industrialization. We hope to soon have these devices in the hands of civil and military First Responders.
Barcode Scanner and Mobile Terminal
Motorola commissioned Porticos, Inc. to handle all aspects of Mechanical Design and Engineering for the new flagship MT2000 series of Mobile Terminal barcode scanners.
These products are incredibly robust, surviving a punishing suite of environmental and abuse tests while protecting a delicate laser scanning module. Judicious use of overmolding and careful attention to interfaces results in a product that is watertight, shock-resistant, and ergonomically friendly.
An innovative two-axis latch makes the battery door easy to remove with one hand, yet holds it securely in place during a shock or drop.