Equipment designed to military specifications faces extreme environmental conditions, and in the case of one Tablet PC, it included being waterproof and operating in 70 deg. C ambient.

The manufacturer initially designed the ruggedized system as a sealed enclosure containing a CPU board, PC board, two batteries, hard disk, touch screen, speakers, GSM module and finger print sensor. To measure the system's thermal performance, the company engaged India-based design consulting firm, Waveaxis. Using Coolit, Waveaxis performed thermal and flow simulations that demonstrated the design could not survive the rigors of MIL-STD 810F.

Waveaxis redesigned the system, creating effective conduction paths through a combination of heat sinks, heat spreaders, gap pads, and finned heat pipes. The consulting firm's design even allowed a small amount of forced convection through limited venting without sacrificing the unit's water-proof characteristics. With the aid of Coolit, the firm optimized the heat sink geometry and placement of the heat sinks, vents, fans and ICs. No physical prototypes were needed. The entire project achieved its design goals without building a single unit, thereby saving the client thousands of dollars in prototyping and physical testing costs.