Com21 Comport
An Ocean Of Information
In the broadband communications market most leading companies offer high speed, data security, and expandable platforms. Taking this into account, how does a company differentiate themselves from the competition? By enhancing function with style. Through creative yet practical industrial design, Com21 has done just that.
IDE's design for the Com21 Comport cable modem was inspired by what the product would provide, 'an ocean of information.' In order to define the product's character and direction, the cable modem's design language was developed around this theme. IDE created a sleek, marine inspired, sculptural design that has strong consumer appeal.
The modem's user interface panel was designed as a small elliptically shaped bezel with metallic finish, five LED indicators, and COM21's multi-color logo. The interface panel interrupts the parting line created by the two enclosure halves giving the product a "face" or focus area.
Home Or Office
The sides of the modem required venting at the top and bottom, so a vent array was scaled proportionally and fanned radially with a widening scallop that runs along the top of the major side scallop. The lower scalloped areas above the detachable base contain a subtle crease wherein a special feature for wall mounting has been created. Below this subtle crease is a vent pattern that follows the same visual lines as the vents found above. The array scales elegantly as it rotates with the shape and width of the side crease detail of the design. The detachable foot has been sculpted in order to visually complete the lower edge of the smaller side scallops. The foot, besides being detachable for wall mounting, also incorporates an air plenum needed for a proper venting passageway between other objects and the cable modem. The soft surfaces and crisp edge transitions make this cable modem friendly enough for the home and resolute enough for the personalized office space
Seamless Design Details
Com21's previous cable modems were horizontally oriented. IDE and Com21 decided early on to pursue a vertical orientation to save desk space, and improve heat dissipation from the internal electronics. Approximately 10% of Com21's customer base prefer to wall mount their modems, thus IDE was asked to design a foot that could be easily attached to either the bottom or the side of the modem's enclosure. The trick was to come up with a design that seamlessly mated to the bottom and side of the modem without having any ugly mechanical mounting features exposed. IDE's solution was to integrate the wall mount attachment of the foot into the crescent shaped cooling vents on the sides of the modem. The same hardware (screws) is used for mounting the foot to the bottom or the side.
Once the industrial design was approved, IDE's mechanical design team began the detail design of each plastic part utilizing their vast experience in injection molded plastic part design. All parts were modeled in 3D solids using ProEngineer. The completed ProEngineer database was then downloaded to IDE's rapid prototyping facility where all parts were precision CNC machined from ABS plastic, checked for form, fit, and function and then tooled for short run molding. In less than a month, twenty sets of parts were molded from IDE's own facility and used for development testing (EMI, thermal, and DFM), early marketing evaluation, and Com21 promotional needs.
IDE's mechanical design team worked closely with COM21 and COM21's production molder and Far Eastern tool maker to bring the production tooling in on a very aggressive schedule. The entire project, from start of conceptual design to completion of production injection molded tooling, was completed in just under 8 months.
