Tasks once performed in large laboratories can now be done with palm-sized gadgets. The evolution of the computing industry has three parts that should be highlighted in this domain. These three parts include size, weight, and computing speed.The size of that computer was 1800 sq.ft., and it weighed over 27 tonnes. You can see now that it has shrunk to the size of our pockets, with weights in mere grams. Yes, you heard it right, in grams.These are the characteristics of miniaturised product design. Everything is shrinking, and becoming small/tiny with each passing day in today’s world. It is also important to note apart from simply fascination, that this miniaturisation holds some importance in our lives.
Nowadays, tech companies try to produce designs that are faster in speed, and smaller in size. The concept behind it is nothing but miniaturisation. People are demanding smaller and smaller things that they can carry with them. The miniaturised product design possesses characteristics that can make people’s lives easier, like in the case of a computer. Every person has a computer in their pocket during the modern era. Researchers and tech companies have made its design so small that it has become portable. Hence, miniaturisation comes with lots of benefits, and characteristics.
Today’s article by The Academic Papers UK will discuss all such properties of miniaturised product design. But before we move on to our main topic, let’s formally define the term miniaturised product first.
Miniaturised Products
Miniaturised products are the smaller versions of their predecessor products. This aspect comes through a process called miniaturisation. Miniaturisation is a trend of manufacturing smaller, and more efficient products. It makes the products denser, and reduces their size by many folds. The result isin the form of products that are more efficient in terms of speed, and many other domains.
Characteristics of Miniaturised Product Design
The domain of miniaturised product designs possesses specific product designs, and details.
Speed, Weight, and Size
Miniaturised products’ first and foremost property is ensuring the size, weight, and processing speeds. The design of old tech products was based on putting on more and more material to achieve the goals. As a result, the weight of those products increased, which created an inconvenience for the users. Now with the aid of miniaturised product design, companies produce high-speed products in terms of speed. The weight of these products is also in grams,whereas their sizes are in millimetres.
For example, the size of the chips of 1970s was in inches, and theirspeed was upto several bits. Modern-day chips come in a size of millimetres, and have speeds in gigabytes. This is how miniaturised product designrevolutionises the industry in terms of these three elements.
Reduced Costs
With the evolution of miniaturisation industry, the cost of tech products has also been reduced a lot. It used to cost people hundreds of dollars to buy a tech product in the past. Now people can buy it by paying a few dollars only. Thus, the reduction in costs of products is also a characteristic of smaller designs. Let me explain it to you through some real-life examples.
The price of a computer chip that contained 2000 transistors was $1000 in 1970. In just next to two years, the price had been reduced by half, i.e., $500. Looking at current scenarios, today, the manufacturing cost of a chip is even less than $0.02. Talking about computers, in 1990, the price for one was $3000. Now you can buy a computer by paying $100, maybe even less. So the point is, how did all this become possible? The answer to this question isminiaturised product design.
Portability
The most prominent characteristic here is the portability of tech products. Miniaturisation has completely revolutionised this domain. Portability is directly linked to the size of a thing in today’s times. People nowadays can carry almost all the tech things with them. Think about the first computer, which weighed 27 tonnes. Could you takethe computer with you while going to the office? Yes, you are right. This was not possible due to its massive size. Butminiaturised product design has made it possible by reducing its size to a man’s pocket.
People can now take laptops with them anywhere they go. You might have seen them using computers on the trains, buses, and streets. All this was made possible through miniaturisation.
Increased Mass Production
Machinery has revolutionised the production of tech products. In the past, it was only people who could develop things. But now miniaturisation has changed this practice. Mini robots can do a lot of your work without being tired. People can become tired, because of which they would need rest. But robots run on technology, which means they can produce things in massive amounts without taking any breaks forrelaxation.
Nowadays, the demand for tech products has increased to a great extent. To cater to this demand, tech industries use more and more robotic technology. A fact here is that automated technology can run 24 hours, and produce things on a massive scale as well. Yet how did this become possible? It happened due to advancements associated withminiaturised design products. The chips and computers used for running robots are now more advanced, and efficient than the old ones.
Approaching Total Automation
With increasing demands of the masses, industries are now shifting towards total automation.Miniaturisationalso has an important role to play in this. We have talked that miniaturisation produces efficient, and technologically advanced products. Thus, keeping in view the needs of people, miniaturisation has also become a need of the modern times. People are buying more and more technology because of this concept. What do you think about it? Will they use it for the rest of their lives? I don’t think so, because people shift gears with the launch of a new product. Therefore, the demand for new products is increasing with each passing day.
And due to this increase in demand, industries are also adopting total automation measures for manufacturing purposes.
Conclusion
Technology has come a long way in the last 50 years. Miniaturised product designs have made the lives of people easier. Hence it is known that due to its endless benefits, tech companies are investing more and more in this concept.