Tough PDAs

In the late 1990's, 4iD was challenged to fortify a PDA to the be able to function after being dropped from a 747 airliner cargo bay down on a concrete runway. This led us to a study of the more general subject of incorporating military-standard technologies of impact design into commercial products. The main issues to tackle in PDAs and similar products case design are:

• Keeping a small form factor.
• Modularity: keeping the same solution for changing generations of PDA elements
• solving the contradiction between the need for shock absorbing elements, that are usually thermally insulating, and the need to get rid of excessive heat
• Reasonable pricing and technology for small scale production.

To this date we have designed, tested and produced, more then 20 different versions of such systems. Our PDA portfolio includes complete PDA systems designed to withstand immersion, different shock profiles, extreme temperature, pressure, and vibration ranges. Riding the same wave we had the opportunity to package PDA-like structures, modified, disassembled and reassembled PDA's as well as larger custom systems. We would be pleased to share our experience with you. For further information, please contact us.