Company Overview
Case Western University, ranked number 37 among national universities, is located in Cleveland, Ohio. Founded in 1826, Case Western is home to 12,000 students and prides itself in empowering and enriching people’s lives through research that capitalizes on the power of collaboration, and education that dramatically engages their students. For more information on Case Western University click here.
Situation
Case Western University was not happy with the current design of their card reader, so they contacted us here at NLS to redesign of a card reader unit that is used at campus events. Their current card readers were bulky and expensive to make. Our objective then was to design and produce a new card reader that was more compact, inexpensive, and easy to manufacture. To get the process started Case Western sent us a sample of their current unit for component identification and basing overall dimensions for the new case.
3D Printing
Their original unit was composed of a handmade plastic shell and heavy metal brackets. To make a new case that eliminated some of the bulk and weight, we used our 3D printing technology and assembled a new case around the electronic components, eliminating the metal bracket. With the use of the 3D printer we were also able to offer customization of the cases with a unique color scheme.
Results
In the end, we were able to design a new case and source a more compact card reader while keeping Case Western’s already developed and embedded electronics with the use of our advanced 3D printing technology. We here at NLS were able to provide a more compact, robust case, that easily and quickly produced. Not only were we able to increase the rate of production but we were also able to eliminate costs with our new design. To date we have provided more than 30 cases for Case Western.