Think about the products you use on a daily basis. Whether they’re physical products like laptops or digital ones like apps, we’re surrounded by innovative product design examples everywhere we look. These products represent the work of product designers.

From a consumer perspective, we only see the end result and don’t know what took place behind the scenes. Today, we’re going to explain how to get started in product design.

1. Find a Community

Finding a network of people who are passionate about design is key to starting your career off on the right track. In the early stages of design, you can leverage online platforms like Behance and Facebook groups like Designers Guild and Designers League to connect with others in your field. The more you contribute to these communities, the more help you’ll receive when looking for honest feedback on your work. You’ll also want to follow your fellow designers on social media—Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn—and slowly build an online presence.

2. LEGO^®

While one of the best examples of great product design, there was a time when Legos were just colorful building blocks that were beloved by children and excruciatingly painful when stepped on. But now, the Lego universe encompasses multiple worlds filled with characters and machines that people of all ages can build, modify and mash up.

There are even Lego-sponsored competitions that give people the opportunity to test their design skills and come up with new creations using Lego parts. And Lego has done a great job in developing a story arc to go along with many of their toys and themes, so they’re not just stand-alone objects but characters in an ongoing fictional narrative that children get to participate in. We all love to play with toy soldiers, dolls or ships, so Lego simply combines this natural love of play with a lot of clever engineering education.

3. YouTube

Everyone these days has access to a video camera and to the internet. Put them together and you get YouTube and other video sharing sites like Vimeo. As an information resource generally, the internet is the greatest repository of raw knowledge we’ve ever created, but it’s a mess.

But if you’re a hands-on kind of person looking for a tutorial on how to tune up your bicycle, check out YouTube. Want to learn how to weld, build an Adirondack chair or, yes, use a 3D printer to make your first prototype – well, there’s a YouTube video (or fifty) out there to teach you how. The quality of the presentations is as variable as the people making them, but that’s why they’re so interesting. Sharing information, know-how and experience from all points of view is a wonderfully democratizing experience and encourages budding product designers to engage with one another and pick up new skills.

4. Open Source Computers

The Android operating system for cell phones is meant to be “open source”, meaning anyone with sufficient programming chops can create new apps to share with anyone else and, of course, there are millions of people doing just that. A new generation of cell phone users is perfectly comfortable with open source design, but not everyone knows how to program an app or wants to. To invite younger people to get involved in our electronic world, inventors and educators have created new hardware/software interfaces that are easy to use and program.

The award-winning Arduino and Raspberry Pi are two open source computers that are no bigger than a credit card and can be plugged into any laptop. They contain sensors and programmable chipsets that allow anyone to reconfigure them to control all kinds of other devices, like robots, flying drones or remote cameras. We’ve talked before about the Internet of Things. These kinds of inexpensive devices invite young learners to interact with our connected world in all kinds of ways, taking away the intimidation factor of black-box computers and, instead, inviting them to create something new.

5. Crowd Funding

So let’s say you’ve got a great idea, and you’ve already made a sample or prototype and you believe it might be the next big thing. Trouble is—you’re short on cash. What to do? Crowdfunding websites like Indiegogo and Kickstarter have revolutionized the concept of venture capital. Now, fledgling inventors and product designers, if they’re not affiliated with a large company that can support them, need only present what they have on a website. They can look for small outside investors to get them started in exchange for a free gift or even a share of the company—assuming the idea becomes something. There’s little risk involved other than some sweat equity, and not every idea catches fire, but once in a while, there comes along a game-changer like the amazing Oculus Rift virtual-reality headset, which started its life on Kickstarter and last year was bought out by Facebook for more than $2 billion. If that doesn’t provide some incentive for young designers to get busy making things, we don’t know what will.

We like making things ourselves and will continue to keep you updated on advances in materials, machinery and techniques for rapid prototyping and tooling. But our work doesn’t start unless there are people designing things to be made. The industrial and product designers of tomorrow will come from those young people today who are excited by the joy of learning and discovery and who now have an entire new suite of tools available to help them get started. Contact us today for a free quote on your project!

This is a very strong, thick glass jar and complies with ASTM 2179 AND 2147 testing methods. (Ensures glass is able to withstand heat and has no cracks or fractures)

Measurements: Height 9.8cm, Diameter 9cm.

Finish: Black outer spray*

Approximate Volume: 400ml

* As theses candle jars have undergone a water soluble paint finish, (rather than a solvent finish) they are more prone to scratching, so please take care when handling the jars. Washing, soaking and immersing the candle jars in soapy water will soften and deteriorate the finish. Use only a DRY – soft cloth (microfibre is best) to remove dust, prior to filling. The water soluble paint finish performs just like coloured glass during burning.

What Does Passivation Mean?

Passivation means to alter the chemical structure of a metal at or just below the surface, so that it’s more stable and doesn’t want to react with other elements in an undesirable way.

There are several different manufacturing processes that we routinely use to passivate the surface of a part. The reasons for doing this are many: to improve hardness, corrosion protection and cosmetic appearance, to name a few.

How do we achieve this? Let’s take a look at the most common methods and what they’re used for.

Anodizing

Anodizing is a way to passivate the surface of aluminum, titanium and magnesium parts. In this case, a coating or some other material is not added on top. Rather, the actual surface chemistry of the metal is changed or “converted”, so this is called a conversion coating.

The top layer of metal – about 5 microns thick – is first cleaned and stripped in a bath of sulfuric or hydrochloric acid. Then, the part is placed into another tank of liquid, called the electrolyte. When the target piece is given a positive electrical charge (the “anode” in anodizing), it will attract the negatively charged ions floating around in the electrolyte. They then bond with the surface, creating a new, strong oxide layer.

Why do you want this? Once you have aluminum oxide on the surface it’s very stable and scratch-resistant. It protects against rust or corrosion, and also makes a great primer for additional treatment like paint or powder coating. When dyes are added to the electrolyte, they make the customary colored look that we associate with anodized parts.

Bluing

Bluing is another conversion coating, but this works on steel. Like with anodizing, the target part is cleaned with acid and then dipped into a different electrolyte chemical solution which forms the familiar blue surface that is often found on gun barrels. A blued surface looks nice and it helps to reduce glare but it’s very thin, so regular treatments of oil are needed to maintain corrosion protection.

Parkerizing is similar but more robust than bluing. The surface comes out looking a dull matte grey, so this is used where cosmetic finish is not important but better environmental performance is. Dark grey or black oxide conversion coatings using this same technique are sometimes done for fairly inexpensive treatment of mass produced automotive parts.

Galvanizing

Although named after the Italian scientist Luigi Galvani, the process comes from India originally and refers to dipping steel or iron parts into molten zinc. This is called “hot-dip” galvanizing, and it’s immediately recognizable to any school kid climbing a backyard fence. The familiar flat grey, rough finish of zinc provides corrosion protection on mild steel but the finish is not especially precise and doesn’t aid in mechanical performance.

The zinc also has the secondary benefit of being a sacrificial anode. Let’s say the outer layer of zinc is damaged, exposing the steel underneath. Time for free oxygen to attack the steel and create rust, yes? Not so fast. The oxygen radicals have an easier time bonding with the zinc and making zinc oxide instead, so the zinc “sacrifices” itself to preserve the steel, at least for a little while.

Another variant here is yellow zinc plating, which is very familiar because of the typical iridescent yellow-green color that’s so common on nuts and bolts and other low-cost hardware.

Chrome Plating

A common plating process that makes the shiny, polished surface that you find on everything from kitchen faucets to hot rod engines. And it’s not just for metal; many plastics can be chrome-plated as well, so long as they’re not damaged by the chemical bath.  Chrome is beautiful, hard and durable, but there are some trade-offs.

Chrome plating uses chromium and the industrial process can be environmentally harmful so it must be carefully controlled – that’s one of the reasons for the higher cost. And if the chrome starts to flake or peel off of a surface you can’t just “touch it up” like with paint – the entire piece must be stripped and re-plated from scratch.

Hard chroming is another technique used to put a super-durable coating on moving parts like bearings and shafts.

Nickel Plating

One possible substitute for chrome is nickel plating, which can be polished to a high luster if desired. Like chrome, nickel can be used for a decorative finish, for corrosion protection, and to increase surface hardness and abrasion resistance.

Nickel is also used as a base coat for a later application of chromium. The use of nickel as a plating material is not considered as hazardous as that of chromium, though it may be more expensive in many applications.

Which Technique is Best for You?

These are the most common passivation techniques we use every day, and each has their inherent advantages, costs and limitations. If you’re still not sure which one is right for you read more about our finishing services or talk to one of our sales support engineers today for more information and a free quotation.

Stainless steel is an alloy made by incorporating chromium, nickel and other metal elements into the steel. Its non-rusting property is derived from the chromium component of the alloy. The chromium forms a firm, self-repairing chrome oxide film on the surface of the alloy. This film is invisible to the naked eye. The ratio of stainless steel to nickel we usually refer to is generally 18:10.

At the beginning of the 20th century, stainless steel began to be introduced into the field of product design as a talented person. Designers have developed a number of new ones around its toughness and corrosion resistance that have involved many areas that have never been involved before. This series of design attempts is very revolutionary: for example, equipment that can be reused after disinfection is first seen in the medical industry.

Stainless steel is divided into four main types: austenite, ferrite, ferrite-austenite (composite), martensite. The stainless steel used in household products is basically austenite.

Material characteristics: health care, anti-corrosion, fine surface treatment, high rigidity, can be formed by various processing techniques, and difficult to carry out cold processing.

Typical applications: austenitic stainless steel is mainly used in household products, industrial pipes and building structures; martensitic stainless steel is mainly used to make tools and turbine blades; ferritic stainless steel is corrosion-resistant, mainly used in durable washing machines and In boiler parts; composite stainless steel is more resistant to corrosion and is often used in aggressive environments.