Having successfully registered and protected new designs with the Patent Office, in8CAD teamed up with Roctag to produce a range of low cost rugged products for both the military and commercial markets. in8CADs brief was to look at producing a new range of products that were low cost and of the same quality expected from products claiming the ‘rugged title’.

First product off the production line from Roctag is a rugged USB stick (not the one featured on the gadget show). The new design is based on feedback from existing kit on the market, whilst still offering a tough aircraft grade aluminium housing, to protect 1gb, 4gb, 8gb+ memory chips. The new stick is finished with an anodised colour and sealed with rubber and chrome surround.

Following on from the first batch of prototypes, we hope these sticks will be the next mini-maglite equivalent and be appearing in gift boxes very soon! Website and marketing material was also provided by in8. www.roctag.com

in8CAD were asked to step in on concept and prototype work on a new range of rugged enclosure and ‘yoke’ solutions for the Royal Marines using tablet PCs. Gathering feedback from companies such as Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman the ‘yoke’ concept was taken from initial concept through to 3 working prototypes in under 6 weeks. in8CAD produced a range of concepts and models, before a final design was chosen, once signed off in8CAD worked with AME Prototype Solutions to produce high quality, production like prototype. As well as producing the outer casing, in8CAD designed the switch membranes, electronic wiring looms and assembled and tested all three units prior to going on site in Aldershot ready for a launch of the concept and various other products in the rugged range. The 3 days put all three products through their paces and allowed for testing of new software and the ability to integrate with the latest global positioning systems. The images below should demonstrate the processes we went through to achieve the final prototypes. The product itself is still under review and subject to further development and investment.

The Yoke is designed to be used in vehicles or field operation, using tactical software applications with a set of programmable buttons and mouse control functions the yoke enables the user to interact with the unit in a way similar to a modern games console. The material used in the prototype was chosen to simulate a production unit and allow for field testing in wet and grim conditions. Further development of the Yoke was to allow the unit to be mounted in any number of vehicles utilising new or already existing mounting systems. The ability to remove the table PC from the yoke whilst mounted in a vehicle enabled critical data to be carried on foot in the event of a hostile situation.