I bought a new Whirlpool freezer in April after the previous one’s door seal wore out - after 27 years!
The seal on the new one did not work on day one. Apparently the design folks made the top of the door look nice with an arch. Unfortunately, they curved the slot for the door seal as well and guess what. The box frame it seals against is NOT curved. Hence we have a curved seal attempting to seal a straight line. The first repairman did not do much but try to force the seal straight and the second replaced the seal. When he installed the new seal it was a bit straighter than original so it’s sealing pretty good right now, but I’m not holding my breath.
At Whirlpool, it looks like industrial design wins over functionality.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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