Background
At Porticos, form and function work hand in hand. Motorola’s barcode scanners are the foundation of mobile enterprises, enabling data capture and integration with various networks and information systems.
Porticos has designed many of Motorola’s scanners and scanner accessories, including the MT2000 series of mobile terminals.
The resulting handheld cordless device can survive a 6-foot drop without losing the battery connection, is engineered to facilitate injection molding, and is expected to become the de facto handheld scanner for business.
Challenges
For handheld devices, industrial design surfaces required for ergonomics are complex and must be engineered to facilitate injection molding. Contoured parting lines, draft analysis, and innovative arrangement of internal structures to prevent thick wall sections are important.
Porticos engineers worked closely with tooling engineers, hardware engineers, and industrial designers to solve these challenges.
Novel Latch Design and Contact Solution for Battery Retention
For the MT2000 product, Motorola required a battery latching and contact solution that would ensure the battery remained attached to the unit without interruption of power to the device even after a drop of 6 feet.
Porticos developed a novel two-motion latch design requiring that the latch be operated in two different axes before disengaging. The motion is simple to operate single handedly, but impossible to trigger in drop scenarios. This eliminated the risk associated with single-motion latches of disengagement caused by G-forces, while also avoiding the need for latch spring forces that would be too large for the user to operate. Similarly, Porticos designed a two-plane battery contact solution to ensure that one contact would always be out of a plane with G-forces induced by drop impact.
Complex Ergonomic Surfaces and Design for Injection Molding
One challenge specific to this type of handheld devices is that the industrial design surfaces required for ergonomics are complex and must be engineered to facilitate injection molding. Contoured parting lines, draft analysis, and innovative arrangement of internal structures to prevent thick wall sections are all important. Porticos engineers worked closely with tooling and hardware engineers to address these challenges.
Incorporating Complex Cameras in Handheld Devices
Porticos has experience packaging both CCD and CMOS cameras into electronic products, including integration of LED camera flash and lens design.
Because camera connections must support large data transfers, RF interference shielding is often required. Special design considerations are critical to allow for proper viewing angles, durability protection for long-term image stability, and tight tolerances required for individual component focusing.
Porticos has long-standing working relationships with Sony, Phillips, and other manufacturers of miniaturized cameras.
Designing Keypads for Form, Function, and Durability
For data input devices such as a keypad, form, function, and durability are critical.
Depending on client needs, we have designed keyboards with painted or laser-etched silicon rubber for a softer finish, and plastic keys or hard caps for a crisp, clean look.
We have working relationships with keypad manufacturers all around the world, including Top Bound, Molex, and Polymatech.
Outcomes
The result is a beautifully balanced handheld cordless device that is expected to surpass the Motorola Phaser to become the de facto handheld scanner for business.
