Anti Theft Security Antenna Crystal

Our next project was the anti-thief antenna ergonomics and design development. Upon approval of the design concept, we had submitted a prototype for the client's review.

Let's analyze the market. Most competing manufacturers do not change the design for years. This is a good sign: everything else being equal, the buyer go for what looks more attractive.

The antenna's body will be made of plastic or aluminum. This is yet to be determined during the development. Some of the parts have to be made of radio-transparent materials (aluminum is also suitable). The design had to be durable and vandal-proof, while easily assembled and disassembled.

Design requirements: the antenna should look elegant and worthwhile, yet not too conspicuous. Are these requirements contradictive? Let's try to find out. Two of our designers began working on the concept.

These are the first antenna design options:

Looks nice, but not satisfactory as a solution. The assignment terms require that the design be unostentatious: Yes, there are frames, but nearly unnoticeable.

Moreover, it contains large amounts of plastic. Over time, it turns yellow, starts collecting dust, and loses its appearance.

New sketches. Minimum plastic parts:

The technical specification changed during the development process. The customer asked us to make a different version of the antenna. A distinctive aspect of this version is the possibility of inserting plastic panels featuring a 3D image.

The best solution would be to develop a versatile antenna design that allows using it with or without 3D inserts.

We offered to fix the panels with aluminum latches. However, the customer gave up on the idea of featuring 3D images.

Below is outlined a preliminary design approved by the customer.

Light alarm unit:

Electronics housing:

Other options:

The electronics housing will be made of sheet metal and plastic while the vertical side posts will be made of anodized aluminum, with aluminum tubes serving as crossbars. We managed to design a very thin housing. This is important because the wires will be inlaid inside.

Prototype order:

The color and transparency of the light alarm unit cover is more than a technicality. The appearance of the whole thing depends on each detail.

Assembling the prototype.

The customer was pleased with the prototype appearance but wished to reduce the size of the electronics housing. The structure was changed, and the design was corrected at the same time.

The result of our work was render.

The prototype's elements: