Five ways to take cultured meat mainstream

November 18th 2022

Richard Owen

Bio-Scientist

Better for the environment and better for animals, cultured meat is an ascendant industry and could grow even faster with these five improvements.

COP27 climate negotiations look set to conclude with steady – if not stellar – progress on reaching a consensus as to how the world can avoid catastrophic climate change. However, one area almost absent in the outcomes so far is how we can reduce the environmental impact of animal agriculture, which is estimated to make up 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions – that’s more than the entire global transport sector.

That doesn’t mean nothing is happening. In recent years, we’ve seen massive investment in one potential solution to this problem: Cultured meat, grown in a lab from a few animal cells, has the potential to counter some of the biggest issues facing humanity, including global warming, land degradation, and water usage.

On November 16, the sector marked a significant milestone as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) raised no questions to UPSIDE Foods pre-market consultation for its cultured chicken products for human consumption. It needs final approval and isn’t on sale yet, but this is a significant hurdle crossed.

How can the cultured meat sector build on this moment and realize the enormous potential to contribute to a sustainable future? We’ve identified five steps producers need to take:

1) Think differently to scale up efficiently

We know we can make cultured meat, but the costs and scale mean it isn’t yet an everyday item. Pharma-style processes and equipment just aren’t designed for food-based products and so won’t get the sector where it needs to be.

We need a mix of new thinking, processes, and products. Rather than focus on pharma, technology should be brought in from other sectors, such as the brewing, textiles, and food ingredients industries, as their process throughput and manufacturing costs are closer to what’s needed for this market.

Ingredients and structural components must be fully defined and standardized before cell bio-fermentation can become a high throughput, low intervention process, like brewing or baking.

2) Don’t obsess about patents

While patents are critical to many industries and bio-based start-ups, they aren’t so important in the cultured meat sector. Most companies have specific cell lines, cell sources, ingredients, and fermentation protocols.

Due to the way cells develop according to their genotype and environment, they’re highly likely to develop in a unique way. Patenting engineered cell lines, cell collection procedures, formulation recipes, differentiation techniques or fermentation protocols is unnecessary, as they would be very difficult to replicate.

It’s much better to keep the know-how in-house, in a similar way to the ‘secret recipes’ of malt whisky manufacturers – they all start with water, yeast and malted barley, but make very different products.

3) Think beyond the butchers

Many cultured meats closely replicate products you’d find on a butcher’s block. While the industry is young, this gently introduces consumers to a new type of product.

However, there’s huge potential to make new products that aren’t replicas of butcher-shop cuts. How about mixing and matching cell textures, fat content, and fiber lengths to create a cross between pate and streaky bacon?

Amazing new products could be created, potentially formulated to be cooked to a certain style, e.g. slow-cooked or medium rare. This could excite consumers and show that this new technique could create a whole new and exciting range of meat products.

4) Get the branding right

Cultured meat companies have a lot of heavy lifting to do to educate the consumer. Meat in its raw state is often considered a generic product; only after cooking does it normally appear as a brand.

Linkage to other existing brands is one option, such as endorsement by well-known chefs or restaurants. Other options include trying to emulate exotic breeds such as Wagyu beef, ostrich, or kudu (antelope). First-movers will have an advantage; later entrants may have to specialize to grab and retain a niche.

5) Embrace the difference between pharma and food products

The pharma industry has advanced the science used by cultured meat producers.

However, the goal of cultured meat producers is to produce a tasty, safe piece of food, rather than a viable drug therapeutic that must engraft in a patient and perform a complex variety of immunological functions.

This means costs and testing procedures should be very different. Much of the cost of pharma production of cell and gene therapies lies in sample collection and testing during manufacture and quality control. There’s a huge list of different attributes that need to be tested, from intracellular mycoplasma to cell viability, potency, and cellular identity.

Conversely, once the manufacturing process for cultured meat has been appropriately established and validated, automated in-process monitoring can remove the need for almost all final batch-based tests.

In addition, more automated diagnostic-style testing regimes can be used instead of the labor-intensive R&D-style analytical methods.

Meat the pioneers

GOOD Meat cultivated meat brand is part of the California-based sustainable food company Eat Just. Its products have already launched in Singapore. In Autumn 2021, it raised $97 million in funding, adding to another $170 million raised in Spring.

California-based UPSIDE Foods has the claim to fame that it cultivated the world’s first beef meatball. In Spring 2022, it raised $400 million in Series C funding to drive product innovation and infrastructure to make cultured meat at scale.

References

Valdmanis R, Cocks T. Meat on the menu, not the agenda, at cop27 climate conference [Internet]. Reuters. Thomson Reuters; 2022 [cited 2022Nov17]. Available from: https://www.reuters.com/business/cop/meat-menu-not-agenda-cop27-climate-conference-2022-11-15/

Pre-market consultation for human food made using animal cell culture [Internet]. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. FDA; 2022 [cited 2022Nov17]. Available from: https://www.fda.gov/food/cfsan-constituent-updates/fda-completes-first-pre-market-consultation-human-food-made-using-animal-cell-culture-technology

Gelski J. Good meat raises $97 million in latest funding round [Internet]. Meat Poultry. Sosland Publishing; 2021 [cited 2022Nov16]. Available from: https://www.meatpoultry.com/articles/25539-good-meat-raises-97-million-in-latest-funding-round

Hood LL. Huge facility to produce 15,000 tons of lab grown meat per year in the US [Internet]. Futurism. Camden Media Inc; 2022 [cited 2022Nov16]. Available from: https://futurism.com/the-byte/biggest-cultivated-grown-meat-lab

Series C funding brings the upside of meat one (giant) step closer [Internet]. UPSIDE Foods. UPSIDE Foods; 2022 [cited 2022Nov16]. Available from: https://upsidefoods.com/upside-series-c-fundraising-round/

CDP unlocks solar EV charging innovation

July 8th 2022

Collaboration between 3ti Energy Hubs and Cambridge Design Partnership propels pop-up, mini solar car park and EV charging hub to launch ahead of crowdfunding campaign.

End-to-end innovation partner Cambridge Design Partnership (CDP) has helped the UK’s leading solar car park company, 3ti, create Papilio3, a pop-up mini solar car park and EV charging hub. Papilio3 will advance the rollout of EV charging infrastructure, helping decarbonize the mobility sector and supporting the global transition to net zero.

Papilio3 is the latest example of CDP’s work in high-impact innovation in renewables, EV charging, and energy infrastructure. The CDP team of industrial, mechanical, and product design engineers collaborated closely with client 3ti – from concept development and visualization to product engineering and realization. CDP supported 3ti in building the supply chain for the pop-up mini solar car park, which is built around a recycled shipping container and combines solar electricity generation, battery energy storage, and EV charge points.

CDP’s Head of Industrial, James Baker, says: “We’re proud to work with start-ups and scale-ups, like 3ti, addressing the biggest challenges. Helping companies innovate and develop new businesses in infrastructure is key to decarbonization. Papilio3 addresses renewables infrastructure with a much-needed, easy-to-deploy, and cost-effective approach.”

3ti’s Founder and CEO, Tim Evans, adds: “From our very first meeting, CDP understood and shared our vision for Papilio3. We’ve worked in close partnership over 12 months to get to this exciting point. We’re now focused on commercialization and plan to have units available to roll-out across the UK by Autumn. CDP built a talented, multi-disciplinary team addressing our mechanical brief, and delivered our first prototype designs at speed. Working with an end-to-end innovation partner like CDP has proved to be a wise decision. Since launching Papilio3 on May 26, 2022 the response has been phenomenal, with enquiries from around the world. Our crowdfunding campaign, designed to fund the roll-out of Papilio3, exceeded its target of £500,000 within 24 hours and we’ve taken the decision to overfund to make the most of this opportunity. I’d like to thank the team at CDP for being a key part of the project.”

“From our very first meeting, CDP understood and shared our vision for Papilio3. We’ve worked in close partnership over 12 months to get to this exciting point.”

Tim Evans

3ti’s Founder and CEO

Papilio3 makes charging accessible to EV drivers who can’t charge at home, providing destination charging in places without existing infrastructure, including offices, retail outlets, and leisure facilities. Made in the UK, Papilio3 is assembled from recycled shipping containers and provides 12 EV charge points under a waterproof solar panel canopy. The pop-up mini solar car park is designed for swift and straightforward deployment. Installation takes under 24 hours, with minimal site works, no new grid connection, and with no need for planning permission in most instances. The units are available to rent from 3ti, avoiding up-front costs or long-term commitments.

The first unit was installed at Surrey Research Park, Guildford, hosted by the University of Surrey, in May 2022, ahead of the launch of 3ti’s crowdfunding campaign. 3ti is crowdfunding to support their rapidly growing business, which is focused on generating clean, renewable energy today, for everyone’s tomorrow. By becoming a shareholder in 3ti, investors will be supporting the UK’s switch to electric vehicles and the decarbonization of the mobility sector.

To register your interest in contributing to the 3ti is hosting two Investor Days at Surrey Research Park on Wednesday, July 6, and Friday, July 15. Book your free ticket using Eventbrite.

Visit their site for more information. Capital at risk.

For further information and media enquiries, email media@cambridge-design.com or call +44 (0)1223 264428.

Making it last: Why testing is vital to product sustainability

March 25th 2021

Jonathan Wilkins

Mark Buckingham

How long do we expect a product to last? Many sophisticated technology products, such as phones and tablets, are routinely replaced after a few years as specifications evolve rapidly. But what about a chair or a toaster? There are a huge range of products that we only replace when they wear out, but how long will this take, and how do we decide when minor changes add up to justify a replacement? When we prepare new product designs, how do we test to predict whether the lifetime will be months, years, or decades?

The challenges of biomaterials

Many consumer products contain large quantities of plastics derived from crude oil. But there’s increasing consumer interest in products made from bio-based materials derived from plant matter. While bio-based plastics are renewable, many are recent innovations. There may be a temptation for designers to make a direct substitution between a well-established plastic derived from crude oil and a bio-based plastic. Yet the two materials are unlikely to behave on a “like for like” basis. Because of limited service experience, there’s often a lack of data or understanding of how new types of plastics degrade and age over time. As a result, long-term testing and lifetime predictions of bio-based materials is a particularly relevant topic and can begin right at the start of a design project, while still in the materials selection phase.

Designing for the long term

We want newly designed products to have a long service life and to withstand normal rough handling. If we buy a shiny new phone, bike, or car, we expect it to start looking slightly rough and worn after a while, but we don’t want it to break or change color too soon. How do we check for this? We need to think about how the product will be used and how it might fail.

We can look at this challenge in terms of material selection. How do products age under different applications? What types of rough handling will a product need to withstand, and will the result be sudden failure or a gradual loss of properties? How will subtle changes in the appearance of the product over time affect its suitability for continued use? Does it matter if it becomes less glossy or even changes in color? Is it easy to keep clean? Do certain design elements require local reinforcement to prevent early failures at potential weak points? It’s easy to overlook these questions when an existing product is redesigned, particularly if a change in material is proposed.

Even when changing the grade of the same plastic material, such as polypropylene, small variations in the amount or type of fillers and other additives, or the length of the polymer chains, can modify its behavior. We can’t look up a single set of properties for polypropylene as there are a huge number of grades with different characteristics. The impact of even a small change may be to move a design from rugged to marginal, with a substantially increased chance of failure. It’s vital to select specific tests in order to evaluate the risks for a particular application.

Better, or just different?

There are many perfectly sensible drivers for changing materials, including cost or weight reduction, improvement in properties or sustainability. In each case we seek to improve, but have we unwittingly introduced a new way in which the product might fail? If the appearance or feel of the product has changed, might it be used differently? If it appears to be stiffer and more rugged, is it OK for me to push it harder? Have we considered how to test the product design to take all possible failure modes into account? If the customer could misunderstand how to use the product there’s an increased chance of unanticipated rough handling.

If we design a product to have a long lifetime, we also need to take customer preferences into account. Until recently, there were drivers to replace products simply because they look a little old and tired. But much greater awareness of environmental issues has encouraged customers to continue to use well-liked older products until they fail, and to consider repairing them to enhance their useful life. Whatever nature can create, nature can also degrade. So, if we consider replacing a synthetic plastic with a natural material, then it may be biodegradable under the conditions of use and so it may fail in new and unexpected ways.

Mechanical performance testing is always a good place to start. As well as testing the finished product, additional trials on small pieces, or “coupons”, of the component materials will highlight any changes in properties after environmental aging. For many regulated applications, such as medical, food packaging or toys, there are specific mandatory tests, for example measuring levels of extractable or leachable materials. But in a novel design it’s often other, non-mandated tests that show up how a particular product might fail. It’s then the responsibility of the designer to investigate and mitigate the possible failure modes in a new product. Key tests will show up early signs of wear, damage or other aging and it may not be necessary to test the item to destruction.

Taking it outside

If a product is to be used outdoors or at high or low temperatures, the risk of failure must be checked over a wide range of conditions. Artificial weathering environments with water spray and UV light mean we can quickly predict the impact of many years of outdoor exposure. As well as possible changes in mechanical performance, the stability of color and other aspects of appearance can also be tested. For example, we expect the paint on a car to begin to degrade only after many years.

Specific environments will put additional stresses on some types of materials. The salt in a marine environment or the sand in a desert may cause wear much more quickly. Beneath the hood of a gas-powered vehicle, the components will be exposed to high temperatures and oil, fuel, and other fluids. Materials used in aircraft, high voltage systems and nuclear power stations also need to perform reliably in very specific ways.

Standing the test of time

Long-term subtle changes can be difficult to detect. For example, many plastics undergo creep when subjected to loads and specialized test regimes are needed to detect when substitution with a stiffer material is necessary. Exposure to fluids can also cause long-term changes, particularly when plastics slowly absorb the fluid and become softened and distorted.

If a product is designed to last for decades, for example if it’s installed within a building, then we need to carry out accelerated aging evaluation to test how its properties will perform over this period. One response is to apply the rule that the rates of chemical changes increase with temperature in a predictable, mathematical way.

By storing samples in ovens at a range of elevated temperatures and testing them periodically, we can build a picture of how the same material will perform over decades at room temperature. This methodology is often termed the Arrhenius approach. For example, it may allow us to predict behavior after 10 years at 20°C in only around six months, by accelerating the testing at 60°C. We can even immerse the accelerated test samples in fluids if we want to simulate use in wet conditions, for example in food or beverage applications.

A route through the maze

With appropriate experience in design, material selection and evaluation, it’s possible to devise a new product and to put together a suitable test plan. The data generated can be applied to provide confidence that a new design or a change of material will lead to a product with a long lifetime. After all, when we like a pair of shoes, we want them to wear out slowly, and there’s no reason why the same can’t apply to our favorite products.

Women in innovation: Design & Research

December 16th 2020

Women play a crucial role in innovation and business success at CDP. We’re proud of the critical contribution made by our women colleagues, who lead in diverse areas of innovation including design, research, science, technology, engineering and human factors.

In this first interview of Women in Innovation series, we talked to four of our leaders working in the design and research field. Thanks to Nicki, Martha, Millie and Clodagh for sharing their stories.

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Nicki Sutton | Senior Innovation Consultant

My primary role is generating insights for innovation and design through immersive and exploratory research. That insight or opportunity specification forms the basis for early-stage concept generation and it’s always important for the researchers to be in the room when that happens. It means they represent the users, customers or wider stakeholders and ensure that their needs are being translated correctly into design and design attributes.

Does being a female researcher give you different perspectives from a male researcher in the same position?

Honestly, and speaking just personally, I don’t think so. I believe any good researcher should be able to cross divides such as gender, age, culture, etc., to empathize with the challenges that individual groups can face. Of course, some subject matters are quite gender based, where one gender may have a very different experience from the other, or not have the experience all! For example, at CDP, we’ve worked on condoms, sex toys, body hair removal and femcare, however we’ve always had mixed gender teams on those projects. Perhaps the women were a little further up the experience curve on some of the insight, but I don’t think the guys were held back!

Have any female mentors supported you through your career?

Not really. My university courses and the companies I’ve worked for during most of my career have been mainly male dominated environments. Since joining CDP I’ve been among the most senior women employee-owners and so there has not really been much scope for female mentorship. However, I do get inspired by the work of other women in the company – in the ‘front end innovation’ team and the wider organization. I see some of the younger women – researchers, strategists, designers, engineers – and I’m in awe of their sheer talent and confidence! I definitely think that our education system, at both school/college and university level, better prepares you for life in the commercial world compared to when I was passing through it!

Do you have any design heroes that you look up to?

As someone who sits at the insight end of design, I couldn’t possibly answer this question without mentioning Clay Christensen; the founding father of disruptive innovation and Jobs to be Done (JTBD). Indirectly, he has been as influential on my career as anyone. JTBD has been at the center of my work for the last 13 years. It’s now a mainstream innovation perspective, but it was still in its relative infancy when I was introduced to it. Focusing on the jobs that people want to get done in their lives as the input to design and innovation seems very obvious now, but when jobs thinking arrived, we lived in a very product-centric research world. Companies believed that users and consumers were too difficult to understand – saying one thing and doing another – so they just didn’t bother with research or research was ‘market research’ into products already launched. Today we live in a different world of design and innovation. One in which jobs, not products, are the driving force of progress.

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Martha Hodgson | Market & Design Insights Research Consultant

My passion is design research: gaining an in-depth understanding of the stakeholder, whether that’s the end user, the commercial sponsor or the key decision maker who sits within a supply chain. Uncovering and understanding unmet needs are at the heart of creating meaningful and effective innovation.

Does being a female designer give you different perspectives from a male designer in the same position?

Being a female can help in understanding some specific contexts -for example, femcare– but I believe what makes a good design researcher is your ability to semi-detach yourself personally and empathize with the context and end-user audience that you are designing for.

Do you think being female has any relevance to how you approach your work?

I think I approach design differently to any other women or men because of the unique journey I have taken to get to where I am today. My approach at work is shaped by my empathy and my understanding of others. I also believe that starting my career as a designer has shaped the innovator I am today and enables me to help improve lives through innovation. It provided me with a way of looking at the world, asking the right questions, interpreting what I see and hear, and making new connections that have led to uncovering new opportunities. It is the combination of characteristics, values, skills and capabilities that is each of our differentiators.

Have any female mentors supported you through your career?

Yes, I’ve had incredible women mentors, and at the same time, I’ve also had excellent men mentors. I consider myself very lucky to have different role models throughout my life and career, and there have always been strong female leaders in the places where I have worked.

Do you have any design heroes that you look up to?

No ‘heroes’ as such! I admire many examples of achievement in many forms where someone has been driven by passion, gumption, determination and a lot of hard work! I follow a group called The Female Lead on LinkedIn, which I find very inspirational – it showcases and celebrates female success, and the many forms it can take.

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Millie Ashton | Industrial Designer

Ever since I was a small child I’ve had a passion for design – I’ve spent many hours designing Lego houses, ceramic animals and 3D printed plant pots to name a few examples. Being able to turn a nebulous idea into a tangible 3D object never fails to excite me, and the fact that I’ve been able to pursue a career in it makes me feel extremely lucky. I’m grateful that my role provides me with the opportunity to help people and bring joy to them through my designs. There’s great satisfaction in creating solutions that have the potential to improve people’s everyday lives.

Does being a female designer give you different perspectives from a male designer in the same position?

I’d like to think that there aren’t many disparities between men and women in our perspectives or design approach. However, it’s difficult to deny that being a woman means you naturally have a perspective that just over half the world’s population doesn’t have – this is invaluable and allows me to use that empathy to tackle problem solving. We take pride in creating design that is centered around user insight, which is key to producing a successful solution for all gender identities. As a woman, I can come up with ideas and new ways of thinking that my male counterparts may not have, and challenge society’s norm of designing for the average adult male.

Do you think being female has any relevance to how you approach your work?

Yes, at CDP I always try to bring a fresh mindset and perspective to problems. As one of the youngest designers in the design team, I enjoy challenging and questioning design norms, as well as keeping a finger on the latest product trends. As the only female member of the Industrial Design team, I try to bring female insight into the products we design and ensure we’ve considered how other genders might use the product differently. I also feel it’s essential to design for future generations, considering how a product’s life cycle will impact the planet in years to come.

Have any female mentors supported you through your career?

Throughout my education and career, many of my peers and lecturers have been male. I didn’t have a female mentor at university, but I wish there had been more female role models to look up to. It has been refreshing at CDP to witness more women joining the company and being promoted into senior positions and hopefully female mentorship in design is something that will continue to be improved upon in time, as more women take up roles in the design industry.

What would you want to say to the design industry or anyone thinking of working in design?

My biggest tip would be this: don’t be afraid of failure or rejection. What you may think is a stupid or crazy idea might turn out to be ingenious. If you love designing things, don’t let self-doubt get in your way – passion often leads to success, and saying yes to new opportunities is vital when starting out. Never stop learning or assume you know everything, and ensure you get as much design related work experience or internships as you can, to figure out your niche.

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Clodagh Hogan | Human Factors and Usability Engineer

My background is in pharmaceutical chemistry, but I moved into the medical device design world so that I could bring my hands-on design skills and scientific background to people-centered design. I’ve always loved being able to turn an idea into a physical object and working in design allows you to be creative every day.

Does being a female designer give you different perspectives from a male designer in the same position?

No. How I approach a design challenge is based on my mindset, creativity, experience and style of problem solving. I work with multiple designers and we all have different perspectives and different skillsets, but this is down to the fact we are different people, not that we are different genders. If men were asked to list the benefits of being a man in design, it wouldn’t be something that I’d want to read and I’d take it as a negative dig towards women. I believe in equality, which means we must recognize that different people have different skills and that gender doesn’t really play a role in it at all.

Based on your experience, what are the top challenges you have faced as a woman working in innovation?

The biggest challenge I face as a woman in innovation is this assumption that I face challenges because I am a woman. I am lucky to be at an early stage in my career while things are actively changing, and it will only get better as time goes on, but change cannot happen overnight. In the near future, I hope that questions like this are no longer asked because we will be living in a world where people no longer assume that women face challenges just because they are women.

Do you have any design heroes that you look up to?

I don’t have any one specific design hero, but there are many graphic designers, illustrators, typographers, UX designers and product designers that I spend a lot of my spare time following and getting both motivation and inspiration from.

What would you say to the design industry and future woman and men that would like to work in design?

I would say that if you are interested in design, then pursue it and don’t let whether you are male or female get in your way. If you are a woman starting out, you will see that there is an imbalance. More women are taking up careers and education in design and STEM now, but it will take time for there to be balance. Know that you are starting your career during an exciting shift and that you are part of this important movement.

We hope to use these ideas and perspectives to inspire other women and girls to pursue a career in design and innovation. Our women designers add enormous value to our projects and team, and we believe it’s essential to celebrate this diversity. In our next blog we’ll share more stories of Women in Innovation, here at CDP.

The future is smaller, faster, cheaper… and more energy efficient

November 26th 2020

James Baker

Ed Shelton

Power electronics technology is enabling big advances in electric transportation and smart energy delivery, as well as playing an important role in meeting the ever-increasing demand for global connectivity and data storage. In this blog, we explore some of these opportunities and the up and coming technology solutions that are already revolutionizing the world.

Electric Vehicles are fast becoming mainstream. For example, Tesla has developed from a start-up to a company with significant production capability, and we can see dozens of new models entering the market helped by financial incentives and tax breaks aimed at reducing fossil fuel demand. Market analysis firm IHS Markit predicts over 300 electric car models will be available in the EU by 2025. Batteries, electronic drives and the charging infrastructure are the foundations of this revolution, facilitating a transition from energy delivered rapidly in liquid form, to the clean and convenient power conducted by copper wires. However, right now the UK electricity grid infrastructure, like many around the world, can’t cope with significant adoption of EVs. So it is likely that smarter grid solutions, enabled by power electronics will be needed to support this innovation.

Another major application of power electronics is renewable energy conversion, both in consumer and commercial applications. While cleaner energy is a longer-term play, governments around the world are investing and carbon emissions are being driven down; for example, the UK has pledged to become carbon neutral by 2050, and is poised to bring forward a ban on new fossil fuel vehicles to 2030 from 2040 as a way to help speed up adoption.

Other demands on energy are growing fast as well. For example, the number of devices connected to the Internet is exponentially increasing each year as our desire to consume data, such as online streaming services continues to grow. This in turn drives networks, storage, bandwidth, and ultimately an increasing requirement for the electrical energy that powers these systems.

These applications all depend on power conversion or moving the electricity from one format to the next as the energy travels from generation to storage to point of use. To support this revolution, the electronic building blocks needed must become smaller, cheaper and more reliable, and most importantly, more energy efficient.

Advances in semiconductor technology such as new power switching devices based on Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Gallium Nitride (GaN) wafer materials offer faster and more energy efficient switching performance than ever before. These WBG devices are a crucial ingredient to achieving higher power densities and greater efficiency when compared to traditional Silicon-based power converters.

WBG devices can switch faster, run hotter, handle higher voltages, and are available in smaller foot-print packages. Cost is a critical factor at the moment, but for the right applications they can offer a step-change improvement in both overall system-level converter cost and efficiency; representing a significant breakthrough and enabling new and exciting end applications. In the longer term, as production volumes rise, WBG devices are expected to reach price parity with Silicon MOSFETs. For GaN on Silicon devices, perhaps cost parity will even be achieved with Silicon IGBTs, due to their common Silicon wafer processes and greater process simplicity for the GaN device. As an example, both Tesla and Toyota have already used Silicon Carbide semiconductors in the traction drive systems for their electric cars. These devices have also found application in the DC and AC power converters in both the off-board and on-board charging systems.

However, WBG devices are not a simple drop-in replacement for existing Silicon devices. They present significant implementation challenges, often resulting in performance that is far from optimal, or designs that prove unreliable and prone to failure. Engineers have passed through a learning curve with each new generation of Silicon switching device. WBG devices are a significant step in that evolutionary path and require even greater attention to circuit details; in particular, a good understanding of low inductance high current printed circuit board design.

Fully accessing the benefits of WBG devices requires significant detail engineering. What was once the realm of the power electronics engineer has now become a significant cross-functional challenge. The latest chip-scale packaging requires careful attention to thermal management that is a collaborative design between electrical and mechanical disciplines to create a multi-physics solution. Also, in these high-performance circuits, test and measurement present significant challenges as fast switching edges generate harmonic frequencies that are well into radio frequency engineering.

But the business opportunity is the potential to get a better product to the market and avoid getting left behind in an inevitably changing technology environment.

CDP has a specialist team of engineers who can create new products with energy conversion utilizing the latest WBG technologies, and get them to market rapidly. Using our core capabilities, technology building blocks and quality processes, we can help realize the promise of smaller, faster, cheaper…. and a more energy efficient future.

Bridging a cultural gap in product innovation

October 1st 2018

Lewis Ho

Consultant Design Engineer

Industrial design (ID) and engineering skills are different, yet both are crucial to successful new product development (NPD). But as anyone involved will have experienced, tensions can arise due to the approaches and goals of different members of the team.

Having attended both art school to study ID and university to study mechanical engineering, I work between the two disciplines, from front end ‘user centred’ concept generation through to detailed design for manufacture. As such, I have experienced these tensions, engineers often pressing for performance and the industrial designers for the user experience they believe is so essential. The worst-case scenario is when everyone misses their goals. So how do we achieve the best outcome?

This is where speaking both design languages can provide benefits. Having empathy and taking the time to understand the underlying design aims from both sides allows for better integration of the end product.

It is important that the NPD team recognises this gap and actively works towards creating a culture where collaboration is the norm. Fortunately, there are some simple measures that can encourage a culture of information sharing and a free flow of ideas. We do this here at CDP and one example is our ‘Friday Innovation Forum’, a weekly event involving different themes and speakers sharing learnings across all disciplines. Another format is a jumbo size computer monitor in our central coffee area which displays new ideas to inform and educate, stimulating coffee time discussions around hot topics and helping to align thinking across disciplines.

With my design hat on, I have a natural appreciation of ID so I spend time trying to understand the artistic intent of what the industrial designer has created and what they are trying to achieve, you can then start working with them to create solutions that embody everyone’s requirements. For example, to start this process, I like to ask:

“What is the ‘hero shot’ you have in your mind for the product, if it was on a billboard or on the side of a building – what is it that you are trying to convey?” By asking that question I’m probing into what the industrial designer’s thought process is and creating a space where we can consider alternative solutions that could benefit all parties.

This is much easier if all the project disciplines are involved right from the start of the project. As an engineer I try to communicate the development journey, performance requirements and operating constraints across the whole team as they become known or change. By highlighting the difficulties as and when they occur it allows the ID team, or any other skill group for that matter to react and develop concepts in parallel that consider the new realities. This is best achieved through informal chats as the program progresses, it doesn’t always have to be in an official review meeting.

I favour elegant design solutions and try to stay away from what I call “glamour caps”, mouldings that have no other purpose than to hide an undesired feature. If the team all think in this way then you can create integrated designs with purpose as well as aesthetics.

It’s never a good idea to crowbar a new design into an already developed architecture. And similarly, it’s never easy to develop the usability and aesthetics of the product when too much is set in stone. By bridging the gap between these two disciplines and steering the development journey away from the ‘it’s your problem’ attitude you can create fantastic products that look good and have high performance.

Worlds first in corrosion monitoring – Collaboration between CDP and Ion Science creates breakthrough in industrial sensing

June 27th 2018

27 June 2018 – A world first in corrosion monitoring has been created from a collaboration between technology and product design firm Cambridge Design Partnership (CDP) and gas detection specialist Ion Science. The new patented Hydrosteel 6500 all-temperature probe is the world’s first for multipoint hydrogen flux corrosion monitoring in extreme environments – providing easy, reliable, direct evidence of corrosion inside steel pipes in near-real time for months on end.

Corrosion of equipment costs the oil and gas production industry more than $1.3 billion a year, according to the worldwide corrosion authority NACE International. The higher levels of hydrogen sulphide in so-called ‘sour’ oil and gas increase the risk of corrosion and can lead to lost production as well as damaging infrastructure. Constant monitoring is crucial to safeguard assets and operations.

The Hydrosteel 6500 is a new generation of Ion Science’s market-leading Hydrosteel range of instruments which use probes to collect and monitor hydrogen flux through steel in petrochemical refineries and gas production operations. Flux measurement provides direct evidence of corrosion in near-real time – and gives an indication of the risk of hydrogen-induced cracking caused by such corrosion. Unlike devices which measure decreases in the thickness of a steel pipe, the Hydrosteel range can capture even tiny changes – and it indicates corrosion of the actual pipe that is in use, not simply a steel specimen.

“With the Hydrosteel 6500, Ion Science is bringing an incredible piece of diagnostic technology to the industrial market,” said CDP partner Matt Brady. “The range of pipe diameters, temperatures and deployment scenarios which the probe must support – along with the necessary slenderness of the ion collector itself – represented unique design challenges. Working together with the Ion Science team, we have increased the robustness, usability, application consistency and longevity of this critical system component.”

The Hydrosteel probe uses magnets to closely attach a flexible metal collector plate to a pipe or container. Air is drawn between the underside of the plate and the adjoining steel surface – capturing hydrogen flux exiting the steel. The sample stream is then passed over a proprietary hydrogen sensor in the device – and the hydrogen flux is calculated and displayed. The new probe design includes modular stainless steel articulating segments that can withstand high temperatures and fit securely yet are easy to install and remove. Four separate sample lines help identify corrosion trends – and the battery-operated device can monitor equipment for several months before needing to be recharged.

Frank Dean, director of innovation at Ion Science, said: “We have been designing and developing sensors and instrumentation for the gas detection industry for more than 25 years. This was a difficult project but CDP’s structured approach to innovation and collaborative way of working enabled us to address the complex design requirements. As a result, we have a world-class corrosion monitoring probe.”

Notes for editors
Cambridge Design Partnership is a technology and product design partner focused on helping clients grow their businesses. Some of the world’s largest companies trust CDP to develop their most important innovations. Located in both Cambridge (UK) and in Palo Alto, California (US), CDP specialises in the consumer products, healthcare, energy and industrial equipment markets. Its multidisciplinary staff have the expert knowledge to identify opportunities and tackle the challenges its clients face. For more information, visit: www.cambridge-design.co.uk

Ion Science has more than 25 years’ experience of designing, manufacturing and supplying gas sensors and detection instruments for a wide range of industries and applications. Its sensor technology and instrumentation is manufactured in-house at its UK plant and distributed worldwide via a global network of distributors. Ion Science is the world’s largest manufacturer of photoionisation detection (PID) technology. Its PID sensor is found within most PID instrumentation available today for the detection of volatile organic compounds. For more information, visit: www.ionscience.com

For further information, contact the marketing team:
+44 (0)1223 264428
marketing@cambridge-design.co.uk

What does the new industrial strategy mean for you?

February 5th 2018

David Lewis

Government-sponsored industrial strategies in the UK have rather fallen out of fashion since Margaret Thatcher was elected in the late ‘70s with free market policies. So you might have missed the launch of the Industrial Strategy in November last year. It’s the UK government’s innovation initiative to address our growing productivity gap and encourage research and development (R&D) investment. I attended a Westminster Forum to learn more about this initiative and how our clients – both in the UK and around the world – might be affected.

The UK’s investment in R&D lags behind that of many other developed economies when measured as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP). The Industrial Strategy is therefore supported by the government’s stated commitment to increase expenditure from 1.7% (OECD 2015) to 2.4% of GDP over the next decade – and reach 3% in the longer term.

At the heart of the Industrial Strategy are five foundations which are underpinned with a range of initiatives that will be administered by a new organisation – UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) – which launches in April with a £5bn budget initially, rising to £8bn in 2022. UKRI brings together the seven Research Councils, Innovate UK and a new organisation – Research England. Its remit includes the development of a new international strategy to encourage and grow cross-border collaboration that will head off concerns over Brexit. Whilst attempting to simplify the landscape, the conference participants – drawn from industry, academia and the public sector – expressed concerns over the complexity and bureaucracy associated with the new entity.

The new approach accepts that industrial strategy needs a focus on what the white paper calls ‘grand challenges’ – major social needs which can give direction to private sector investment and help strengthen UK supply chains. The government has chosen four: artificial intelligence and data; clean (i.e. green and low-carbon) growth; mobility (electric and driverless vehicles, etc.); and our ageing society (health and social care).

So, at the macro level, we can hope for the UK to develop into the world’s most innovative economy – the stated goal of the Industrial Strategy. In the meantime, what does this all mean to you? Well, it’s a long-term strategy being played out, and our clients are typically focused on commercial objectives set around innovation pipelines. Therefore, more immediate interest may lie in access to funding and expertise.

If you’re operating in one of the ‘grand challenge’ areas, you can expect increasing opportunities to work on themed projects aligned with the challenge goals, where UKRI is set to allocate £725m. These projects aim to foster collaboration and partnerships between research organisations and business, partly through increased funding for outreach programmes. More generous funding for ‘younger companies’ is another aim, with matched funding from partnering venture capital firms. There is also talk of a new £2.5bn investment fund to be administered by the British Business Bank – and an increase in R&D tax credits to 12%. The scope and value of the new programmes is still being finalised but further details are expected to be available in April. Our contacts at UKRI suggest that Innovate UK will remain as the main funding vehicle.

Our experience in accessing these funding programmes shows that you need to invest time in understanding and navigating these initiatives to get the best out of them. There is constant change in the government departments that administer them, which means the processes can be clunky and the staff that populate them can be unfamiliar with the success criteria for funding and how commercial businesses typically operate. These problems may well be compounded by the current reorganisation – challenging questions from the floor of the conference certainly suggested this was the case.

The Catapult centres have been running for five years now and have received a mixed reception. Ernst and Young was commissioned to undertake an independent review last year, which concluded that the centres are not being managed effectively – both by government and within the individual centres. Kevin Baugham, deputy CEO at Innovate UK, said there was “some need to step up their game”. However, our experience is that the centres are asset rich and hungry for work. Again, you need to invest time in identifying capability and engaging with the centres to get the best from the relationship, and it’s helpful to understand the political and funding environment within which they operate.

The newly formed Research England has funds which are primarily focused on academic institutions. However, our contacts are indicating that its remit may also extend to encouraging collaboration with industry, with funded programmes to support this goal.

Unsurprisingly, Brexit featured in many discussions, with a number of delegates highlighting the negative impact of uncertainty on their businesses or research funding. Heading off the challenges of Brexit is a central plank of the Industrial Strategy and this includes £300m allocated for attracting world-class talent to the UK for associated projects. The new interventionist strategy should be good news for our clients around the world as it aims to create an environment within which CDP can continue to thrive.

The Industrial Strategy has laudable goals, aligned with the interests of many of our clients. To be truly successful, it will need to address the limitations of previous initiatives by reducing bureaucracy and increasing engagement with industry. To this end, we have lobbied UKRI to use tools familiar to innovators and draw on a ‘user-centred design’ approach for the roll-out of its programmes. Let’s see how innovative government can be when encouraging innovation!

Satmap Active 20 Collaboration with Satmap Systems to create the ultimate rugged, high-performance sports GPS device

October 6th 2017

The Challenge

Following the success of its Active 10 and Active 12 GPS devices, Satmap Systems decided to create the next generation of Active devices – with improved screen toughness, button functionality and waterproofing. It also wanted to incorporate new features such as a touchscreen, Wi-Fi connectivity, improved GPS and a unique dual-battery system.

APPLIED EXPERTISE

Research & strategy
Human factors
Industrial design
Packaging
Technology development
Mechanical engineering
Electronic engineering
Software engineering
Wireless & connected
Short run manufacturing
Manufacturing processes
Supply chain management

The Solution

Our first step was to gain human factors insights and gather customer feedback from previous models to feed into the design process. Our industrial design team then worked to maintain and enhance the brand, while our engineers integrated the new functionality and developed the mechanical design to meet the extreme requirements of Satmap customers.

Proof-of-concept tests ensured that the custom Gorilla Glass touchscreen within the ultra-rugged case design exceeded IK7 grading in impact tests and achieved IP68 rating for water submersion.

Benefit to Client

The new Active 20 was a sell-out success within days of its launch.

“We’re really pleased with the Active 20 – we’ve integrated all the exciting new technologies we were hoping to, while maintaining our customers’ favourite features. We are confident the Satmap experience will be better than ever.”

Howard Dyson, managing director and founder, Satmap Systems

Balancing design and engineering – New Design Magazine interview Ben Strutt

February 1st 2015

Cambridge Design Partnership was established in 1996 by three engineers (all of whom are still involved in the running of the business to this day). One of the founding partners, Mike Cane completed his Engineering degree at the University of Cambridge before studying Industrial Design at the Royal College of Art; it was his vision to create a company that balanced technological expertise and user-centred design in helping clients to innovate and make better products.

Ben Strutt, the company’s head of design, joined Cambridge Design Partnership in 2010 and the five years since have seen design become an increasingly important aspect of the business. “My vision was to drive the combined industrial design, consumer research and technical R&D offer,” he says. “These disciplines have now become fully integrated within the business.”

The consultancy works predominantly across four sectors: consumer (which includes subcategories such as consumer electronics and packaging); healthcare (medical devices, drug delivery systems, and surgical devices); energy (domestic heating technologies, control systems, and in-home monitoring systems); and industrial (process line equipment, safety systems and so forth).

2014 proved an exciting year for Cambridge Design Partnership in terms of growth. The company took on 18 new staff and in March opened a bespoke multi-million pound R&D centre. The new centre includes laboratories, consumer research facilities, a rapid prototyping suite, and workshop and modelling provision. Strutt adds: “The centre is integral to our ability to work and iterate quickly and support client confidentiality by keeping as much activity inhouse as possible.”

The year started with the exciting news that the consultancy had been successful in obtaining a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to help tackle the global HIV epidemic by developing a next-generation condom. “We felt it was a very user-centred problem: it wouldn’t just be about developing a new material or a new chemistry, it would be about focussing on the challenges that are experienced by users,” explains Strutt. “Many of the problems – social, emotional, cultural, accessibility, and so on – are unique to sub-Saharan Africa and other low resource settings.”

Through 2014 Cambridge Design Partnership worked on the first stage of the project, making links with health workers in Lesotho (where around a quarter of the population is HIV positive) and developing concepts to early prototype level.
In 2015 a Phase Two application will be made to the Foundation to support further development of certain concepts. Also in healthcare, the consultancy worked with Raumedic AG, a German medical device company, on a needle safety device that fits to their existing syringes in order to prevent needlestick injuries.

In response to new directives (in the US and Europe) introduced to reduce the number of such injuries, companies are attempting to create completely new products. However, one of the problems of starting from scratch is the product will need to go through a long and expensive validation process. “Raumedic AG recognised the opportunity for a needle safety device that could be retro-fitted to existing primary packs (the part that holds the drug),” says Strutt. “We created a spring-mounted telescopic sleeve which, once the syringe has been plunged and the drug delivered, springs out to surround and cover up the needle automatically. Modifying the existing vial avoided the long process of revalidation and helped the client get to market as quickly as possible.”

Also in 2014 Cambridge Design Partnership worked with Bloodhound SSC, the British land speed record team. The consultancy helped to design the steering wheel for the car, which it is hoped will be capable of speeds in excess of 1,000 miles per hour.

The project prioritized usability and ergonomics with the wheel designed specifically for the hands of driver Andy Green and carefully formed to take lines of sight into consideration. The wheel has been printed using an additive titanium technology making it incredibly strong as there is no need to remove a mould tool.

2014 was a particularly strong year in the industrial sector. To look at one example, Cambridge Design Partnership developed an industrial printer for Domino. “This is not your typical home printer,” comments Strutt. “These printers sit in factories labelling anything from sweets and eggs to mass-produced packaging.

Some of those environments are quite challenging, the products need to be very rugged and washed down regularly.” The main challenge for the designers was around ingress protection to ensure the printer met IP66 rating. There was an apparent fundamental conflict between keeping the electronics cool and a rugged enclosure. The design team did extensive work with thermal modelling and CFD to develop a solution in addition to industrial design work to enhance the user experience.

Having carried out qualitative consumer research in the US, Latin America, China and Europe last year, the company plans to extend and expand its front end process in 2015 to ensure primary insights are translated most effectively into concepts and products that people want and need. Furthermore, the team will continue to grow both at the consultancy’s Cambridge site and at its US office in Palo Alto, California.

See the article.

www.newdesignmagazine.co.uk

New Design Magazine 2015 Year book. Issue 114. February 2015