So how do manufacturers differentiate their products? There are two main techniques: The first is through user interface design and software, and the second is via the materials that give each device its exterior shape, color, and texture.

In today’s crowded marketplace, device-makers should realize that using standard materials in standard ways won’t help them stand out.  It takes extra investment in supply chain logistics, tooling, and unusual manufacturing processes to create products that seem truly unique. Yet when done right, the extra money spent on materials can become the key differentiator that makes a product successful.

With that in mind, Chris Porter, MOTO’s Director of Supply Chain, explored the floor at CES 2010 to pick out a few products and trends that reflect how manufacturers are using materials to deliver strategic differentiation. Here’s what he noticed:

Utilitarian, Sporty Finishes:  Dell Latitude 2100 NB Netbook

This new netbook aimed for the education market features what Dell is terming a “rubberized” texture. The advantage of texture is that it hides imperfections well, and in this case enables “efficient grasp” of the product.  This is a refreshing change from the typical glossy or textured hard plastic finish we are used to in the netbook category — a clear differentiator.

Dell’s “rubber” is actually an application of what the industry calls “overmolding” where an elastomer is molded over an inner plastic part. This is not a new idea but provides a ’softer’ feel that consumers continue to like. It will be interesting to see how these materials perform over time in terms of durability, as elastomers have a tendency to wear quickly and suffer from UV color changes.

Printing for the People:  Dell Inspiron Zino HD Desktop PC

In-Mold Decoration (IMD) is a process used to apply ink to plastic during molding, to create colorful graphics that almost look painted on. IMD has been around for some time, and the basic technology involves transferring ink from a printed foil onto a plastic surface during the injection-molding process.

Dell has significant experience with the IMD process, a technology which has been around for some time, but it continues to be used more and more as OEMs want to offer as much customization or individualization to consumers as possible.

IMD is a popular technology but there’s a lot of focus now on newer printing technologies that allow customization after the molding process, particularly on 3D surfaces (e.g. The Flip).

Sexier Metal and Glass:  Dell Adamo Laptop

Two areas of interest here:

1)  Main casing is machined from solid aluminum (same process Apple uses on Macbook Pro models). This creates a very stiff housing allowing less material to be used.

This solid body aluminum is a very energy-intensive process, both from the original material processing and then the recycling of excess metal ‘chips’. Machining the main housing from solid aluminum allows you to eliminate the need for a separate internal frame component (typically die cast) . Also, makes it much faster and easier for mechanical engineers to change the design without requiring modifications to tooling and the associated leadtimes — all you do is change the CNC machining path.

2) The 13.4″ HD display with edge-to-edge glass: that’s Gorilla Glass, a glass product Corning developed using a fusion process where they temper the glass to a greater depth to improve impact resistance.

Glass is sexy, people want glass, but they also want it curved — and that’s one of the big areas of interest in the materials world that wasn’t yet in evidence at CES 2010. CE product developers are waiting for curved surfaces with the properties of Gorilla Glass for scratch and impact resistance.  We forsee molded glass for touchscreens, phone displays and laptops as one of the next big materials trends, maybe even at CES 2011 but certainly CES 2012.

Bio-Plastics Getting Real:  Samsung Reclaim Phone

Samsung is claiming that 40% of this enclosure is made from bio-plastic (plastic based on corn oil vs that derived from petroleum).

Some of the traditional limitations of organic plastics compared to engineering thermoplastics like polycarbonate are that they have low heat resistance and poor mechanical properties (strength, stiffness). From a manufacturing point of view, it’s very unclear right now if and how we can entirely replace traditional plastics with ‘bio-plastics’. This is what a lot of people want, so we suspect that in the case of a product like this, the use of bio-plastic is more a marketing tool, rather than a real functional element of the product.

Still, if this is 40% of enclosure by weight, that’s impressive for a product that requires a lot of impact strength. (MOTO is curious what materials they used and how they pass mechanical/thermal test requirements – please comment if you know more of the story!)

This also points to an underlying issue in the product development world:  there is a wide range of marketing information about recycled materials and bio-plastics (some of which are made from vegetable oil), yet limited available material data for the mechanical engineer who wants to compare material properties to ’standard’ engineering plastics and specify these new ‘eco-materials’ in consumer electronics products. Why has this information not been summarized?

Replaying the Plastic:  Sony Vaio W Eco Netbook

Sony’s product is reducing use of virgin petroleum-based plastic, though this time the claim is an impressive “20% of the PC/ABS resin used in the cover, palm rest and incidental parts is comprised of reprocessed plastic from DVD and CD waste.”

CDs are molded from optically clear high quality polycarbonate (PC). This recycled PC is added to a PC/ABS plastic. Given that one of the primary challenges in the recycled materials industry is to develop a reliable feedstock of materials (CDs, water bottles etc) to ensure that production can be continuous, we are interested to know whether Sony has developed an agreement with a raw material plastic supplier just for this application or whether this ‘recycled CD resin’ is freely available.

Brown Feels Green:
Impecca Bamboo Mouse, Keyboard, and Headphones; Asus Bamboo Netbooks

The Impecca mouse, keyboard and headphones appear to be formed to shape with heat/steam and then machined. The newest in the line of Asus Bamboo series (the U83Jc, U53Jc, and U33Jc)  glues laminate bamboo sheets onto plastic enclosures, covering not only the chassis but the wristrests and even touch pads. Reading the mostly positive blog reviews of these bamboo-skinned CE products, it’s clear people really love the idea of a wood warming up their day-to-day computing experience.

Bamboo is a fast growing plant and the material on its own can be regarded as sustainable.  However the whole life cycle impact of the product design needs to be assessed to determine whether the product can be considered truly ’sustainable’.  For any material one has to ask:  what are the costs of obtaining the material, the supply chain, integrating it into the product, recovering it after the product is obsolete, etc.

Bamboo is a really great material — grows easily, light, strong — but how green that makes the product depends on how the material is used and integrated. In either case pictured here (forming or lamination), the glues and energy expenditure in manufacture may likely offset any gains made in the replacement of plastic with bamboo.

At MOTO, we use life cycle analysis software as a tool to help determine the impact of various factors on the environment. Raw material, processing technology, supply chain, shipping, product usage and end of life disposal are some of the factors under consideration.  Making a valid claim on sustainability is more than a skin-deep endeavor.  Differentiation, however, is a less complex undertaking — and wood here does the trick.

Scratching the Surface

Of course, this is just a skimming of the surface of materials “stand-outs” at CES 2010.  What held your attention at CES, and how did novel or re-positioned materials play in its appeal?

Links

Gadi Amit, President of New Deal Design, also on differentiation in his recent post “How Smallness is Changing Hardware” on GigaOm.