Inside Look: A Design Engineer’s Guided Tour of Zebra Technologies’ R&D Facility
Machine Design was invited to visited Zebra Technologies’ R&D site in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada back in August.
The site tour, led by the facility’s site lead, Tim Kyowski, director advanced hardware engineering – Mobile Computing, included a walk through the facility’s R&D business unit, which is responsible for developing and testing a variety of mobile computing products, such as rugged handheld warehouse scanners and wearable scanner technology.
Products designed here are used in various industrial applications and verticals, from transportation, logistics and warehousing to healthcare and retail store applications.
Design Upgrades for a Back-of-Hand Scanner Device
Kyowski, who has an active role in advanced hardware concepting in the mobile computing wearables business unit, said his team designs products that generate a return on investment by increasing efficiency in workplace applications and enhancing manufacturing processes.
A back-of-hand scanner device, for example, was designed to free the operator’s hands and allow other tasks to be done efficiently and accurately. Improving the ergonomics and efficiency of this wearable meant fitting it with a trigger button on its side.
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This convenience frees up an operator’s hands to move boxes, but also enables them to scan each box for verification and ensure that the item is in the right place. In addition, the operator’s fingers remain free to input data on a keyboard without having to pick up or set down a scanning device.
“A lot of what I do is the front end of the design process, working with product management, understanding customers’ unique needs,” Kyowski said.
The back-of-hand scanner was designed to be “a low-cost, back-of-hand, hands free, glove-free device” because the operator needs to be able to feel things, but also needs to be able to scan items quickly.
A Walk Through a Non-Destructive Testing R&D Lab
Products designed or brought in for testing undergo a rigorous battery of tests, ranging from non-destructive testing, RF testing, acoustic testing and electrical testing (of battery life), to assessing scanner functionality.
“There’s a lot of mechanical testing—drop impact, water ingress—a plethora of tests that allow us to ensure that these devices will live long lives in the field,” said Kyowski. “A device may look like a cell phone but are truly industrial-designed and purpose-designed devices.”
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In the facility’s acoustic lab, Kyowski described how Zebra’s engineers test devices used for communication. An acoustic chamber engineered to simulate a human’s head and torso is utilized to evaluate speakers against quality standards and to meet regulatory requirements. An acoustic chamber designed to simulate a human head and torso is employed to evaluate speaker unit performance, ensuring the audio meets quality standards and regulatory requirements.
The tour also included a peek into the RF lab, which assesses cellular and Wi-Fi capabilities in relation to both European market regulations and North American carrier regulations. “We test to make sure that we have the most pristine functioning RF connection—because the data connection or the scan is only as good as the information that it sends back to the system,” said Kyowski. “Our customers are scanning these items because they are mission critical.”
Moving From the Design Phase to EV, DV and MV
Once Kyowski’s team completes the initial design concept of a device, such as a scanner, his team collaborates with the product development team to evaluate the product’s potential cost and its perceived value to the customer. These factors help determine the average selling price.
“From there, we can justify whether a program goes above board,” said Kyowski. “If it does, the project is handed off to a larger design team in the mobile computing business unit or the wearables team.
Throughout the process, Kyowski remains involved as the manufacturing teams work to finalize the final project concept. He ensures that the teams are hitting price targets and checks requirements along the way. His team further ensures each product undergoes a thorough design review and develops testing plans based on end-use cases and the verticals the devices are intended for.
Kyowski said product testing at the Mississauga facility includes proprietary accelerated lifecycle tests. “We do engineering validation, we do design validation, and we do mass production validation before we release the product to the fields,” said Kyowski.
Zebra Technologies has duplicate testing capabilities at its New York design facility.
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