OVERVIEW
From strategy and design to engineering and manufacturing, Mighty Studios has built its reputation on being a full-service product development agency. A large part of that reputation is founded on the team’s strength in Industrial Design, a strength that drew client Molecular Devices to Mighty’s door to take on a redesign of their ImageXpress Device.
Molecular Devices provides biotechnology instruments for laboratories to perform imaging and analysis of cell assays. For this project, the client challenged Mighty to channel their expertise in creating and designing products that adhere to both brand aesthetics and functional requirements and apply it to Molecular’s lab-based imaging device, the ImageXpress.
Taking into consideration the materials, location, and manufacturing requirements, plus the need to ensure all internals—at that time also undergoing an upgrade—would fit within Mighty’s vision of the new shell, the final delivered design achieved a sleek and modern look and addressed key accessibility and functionality requirements as outlined by the client.
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INSIGHT
Everyone knows the saying, “it’s what’s inside that counts”, but if you want to ensure a large and somewhat visually obtrusive machine fits within the aesthetic of a specific environment—in this case, a laboratory setting—what’s outside is just as important.
At its core function, the ImageXpress is, essentially, a microscope in a giant box that sits atop a bench in a modern laboratory setting. It allows technicians to extract high-definition images and robust data from cell assays. Molecular Devices was already in the process of updating the hardware and software in the device and turned to the Mighty team to re-imagine the exterior.
More than just creating a vision for a new physical presence and how it would fit and sit within a lab environment, Mighty’s checklist included addressing how technicians would access the internals for servicing (how panels would open and close and allow for easy maintenance); take into consideration the potential for mounting a fluid handling unit in the future; and how to incorporate subtle color elements in the design, for example, accents that would reflect the corporate brand palette.
In delivering a revamped exterior design Mighty minimized the panel count and complexity of the assembly; chose a durable mix of plastic molding and sheet metal materials for manufacture that would tolerate various chemicals, such as ethanol, methanol, and low-concentration hydrogen peroxide; and accounted for vibration to ensure critical components inside would not be affected during operation.
The design also included a blue brand accent color in its perimeter LED lighting strip as a status indicator, visible from 360 degrees, plus simplified access to internals, allowing for easy servicing and to swap out components. A hinged door was added to address the future incorporation of the fluid handling unit, while the entire assembly was carefully engineered to prevent light leaks, maintain temperature control within the unit, and stave off Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) while the microscope was in action.
While the ImageXpress Device is necessarily large, with a presence that could easily dominate a lab environment even in its bench-bound footprint, Mighty Studios’ design vision for the revamped exterior successfully overhauled the expectation of what an essential piece of lab equipment should look like. With its sleek lines and minimalist design, the outside of the device now exudes a modern edge to match its technical functionality, and all without sacrificing the project’s core objective—ensuring the flawless operation of what’s inside the ImageXpress.
