Decals, data and design | The assembly of our Cranio Pro-IO units with our printer Sun Industries
- EEA
- Apr 1
- 5 min read
It started with a dream and a black box. Now it’s a polished, production-grade device with proper labels and fascias, proudly manufactured in Western Australia!
In Part 2 of our behind-the-scenes look at the printing of our Cranio Pro-IO decals, Ayrton teamed up with Gavin from Sun Industries to bring the final pieces of the puzzle to life.
Gavin showed us the best ways to apply our WA-made polycarbonate fascias and decals, from alignment tips to windowing techniques. These babies are robust, precise, and built to withstand the harshest conditions, while ensuring clear operation of the devices and the best possible user experience.
This isn't just sticker slapping. It's a collaboration between passionate designers and skilled local manufacturers, turning ten years of frustration into real-world innovation. And the joy of seeing something once imagined become real!
Massive thanks to Gavin and the Sun Industries team for not just printing, but caring deeply about quality and longevity. This is what local manufacturing done right looks like.
The journey from raw components to a fully branded, field-ready device is one of detail, precision and collaboration. A recent milestone in the development of the Pro-IO saw the final decal components applied to the first prototype units, bringing the project one step closer to broader deployment.
The decals, manufactured by Sun Industries in Western Australia, play a key role in the Pro-IO’s rugged design. Produced using durable 8A35 polycarbonate, these fascia layers offer exceptional structural integrity. Unlike typical vinyl stickers, they won’t stretch or crease during application and are built to withstand Australia’s harshest conditions. The material has a long history in demanding environments, including pool pump housings, making it a proven solution for industrial enclosures.
Gavin Parker from Sun Industries joined the team for the first prototype fascia application. He highlighted the strength of the product and the significance of WA collaboration:
“It’s fantastic. This is one of the joys that I get with what we do, because we’re dealing with hundreds of customers each year. A lot of them are big companies, others are much smaller Australian-based manufacturers that are just so creative, coming up with really interesting concepts and designs.”
The fascia application process involved thoroughly cleaning the enclosure surface with alcohol to remove residue, followed by careful alignment of each decal. The adhesive is solvent-based and sets over 24 hours, creating a strong, long-lasting bond. Transparent windows were produced using a “trans white” printing technique, allowing LED indicators to shine through while keeping the interface clean and professional.
The new fascia design includes coloured buttons, printed flaps, and both external and internal QR codes for identification and usage guidance. The end result is a polished, production-grade unit that closely resembles the original CAD renders — a rewarding moment for the whole team.
The Pro-IO itself is a modular, edge-computing device designed for rugged field environments. It includes WiFi, cellular, Bluetooth and long-range RF communication, and is capable of high-speed, high-precision data handling. With stackable IO and relay boards, it can be adapted to a wide range of industrial sensing and actuation tasks, whether mounted under solar panels or deployed in remote energy sites.
For Ayrton, this milestone is personal:
“Oh, it’s amazing. This is an idea in my head, or a frustration in my head, for 10 years.”
"Back in 2010, we were using data loggers to try and get real-world data from off-the-shelf sensors. Each one of those loggers cost about twenty grand. We’d install them in a customer’s truck, collect great data, and use it in our simulations. Then the customer would inevitably say, “Hey, can we leave that in the truck?” or “Can we roll that out to six trucks?” And we’d have to say, “Well… yeah, but I’ll need to build you one each time, install it, and then someone has to go there daily, plug in a USB, download to a laptop, sort through the data, and figure out what it means.” It was just too hard.
Over the years, I’ve tried everything — Arduinos, Raspberry Pis — but they all have the same problems. You still have to build a box, like a little jiffy box, install it, program it, make sense of the data, and usually have multiple engineers working on it. The vision for Pro-IO is to eliminate all of that. You buy the modules you need, like the analog digital IO module, connect your sensor or actuator, use your grommets and cable clamps, wire it up, power it, close it, and that’s it. It just sends the data where it needs to go.
The hard part is making that data actionable. It has to be easily accessible. It’s got to be web-based. An app is fine for setup, but the ongoing interaction should be through a simple web interface. From there, you can make changes to the system. All the things we used to do in code are now done in a graphical UI. It’s about giving power to smart people who don’t have the time to code. This system removes the need for jiffy boxes, custom cabinets, and messy wiring. We’ll have tutorials to guide the process. Once deployed, you get data, iterate, and keep building on it.
The base plate goes down first. Then you stack in the modules. If I want to add a relay board to do some actuation, I plug it in with electrical connectors, place the module on top, and the system automatically recognises the new device. It’ll say, “Hey, I’ve got these new endpoints. What do you want to do with them?” And it’s done. That’s the dream. I honestly thought someone would have built this already. I've seen it attempted in different ways, but I believe this approach is the most accessible and cost-effective.
The Pro-IO is purpose-built for rugged environments like we have here in the resources sector. It can be mounted under a solar panel or deployed in the desert or oil and gas fields. It collects valuable data and enables actuation. It can complement or even replace PLC systems. We've done the hard work to make it fast and capable of handling high-speed, high-precision data. And there's nothing stopping us from scaling it down, using a cheaper circuit board in a plastic case that might only cost $199, so more people can adopt it in their factories or operations.
It’s been a long slog. I did the original mechanical and electrical design myself. Now we’ve got a team handling electronics, and I’ve passed mechanical on to the A-team. I’m good at the creative side, figuring out the fit-for-purpose bits, and getting it through to production.
But IoT isn’t just one thing. It spans mechanical, electronics, firmware, backend software, frontend interfaces, graphic design, and industrial design. That’s seven domains my brain has had to jump between. I’ve had to look at what exists today, what doesn’t work, and think about how we could do it differently.
Now that the first 100-unit pre-production run is coming, there’s plenty of interest. We've got trials lined up in Queensland and down south on a farm, and we’re looking for more. We’re even installing one on our own roof here with a big LoRa antenna. We’ll throw some devices in our cars and the work ute just to mess around with high-speed G-force logging, stuff we were doing back in 2014 at Boddington Goldmine. But this time, we’re doing it on a modern, connected, and configurable platform. The Pro-IO acts as a base station, and the mobile units report back to it. We really want to get it out to the resource sector. This thing was built for it."
As the team prepares for more real-world trials, including rooftop installations with LoRa antennas for long-range data logging, the Pro-IO is fast transitioning from prototype to field-ready product.
The collaboration between Element and Sun Industries is a proud example of what’s possible through local manufacturing partnerships: fast, flexible development with innovation and quality at its core.
🌐 Learn more about Cranio here: www.cran.io
🌐 And check out Sun Industries here: www.sunindustries.com.au
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