Past Projects
Here are some select products I've had key roles in over my career.
WS2000/WS5000
In my most recent Role at Wilder Systems, I served as the Principal Mechanical Engineer overseeing the complete redesign of both major company offerings. The WS2000 and WS5000 have been redesigned from floor to toolpoint to better serve the customer. The system had major redesigns of the drive mechanism, primary weldment, 7th axis, and robotic end effectors. Additionally, the end of arm tooling was specifically targeted as an area for improvement, where I added the capabilities for large bore drilling, sanding, welding, tapping, nut plate multi-spindle drilling, and trim milling.
Custom Mecanum Wheels
As part of the WS5000 update, we reevaluated the supply chain for the system's drive wheels. The original version were sourced internationally, with long leads and subject to high tariff costs. As a result I took on the challenge of redesigning the mecanum wheels to better fit our needs. I increased the load capacity by 20%, and reduced the cost by 10%. The design went through several iterations, including a more expensive but more serviceable face-mount version, an extremely smooth tapered bearing roller configuration, and a stripped down plane bearing based design. Through intentional design the CAD model was set up parametrically, allowing easy resizing for a smaller diameter version and potentially up-sizing for a future larger version.
Amazon Just Walk Out Tech
Being a part of the Just Walk Out team was an interesting experience, as it was a drastic departure from most of my previous experience. Aerospace manufacture deals mostly with relatively low quantities, and non-customer facing products. However, I was in charge of mass produced models, and products that needed food safety certification. The testing rigors of a retail environment overlapped more with FAA certification than I would have expected.
As a part of the sensor team, I was was in charge of the design for the newer version of shelf sensor, extending to pretty much any weight sensor platform for ambient, fridge/freezer, bakery, produce, and special merchandising. Once the system moved to wireless sensor communications, I also owned the wireless base station.
787 Wing-to-Body Join Predictive Shimming
Relevant patent (Not Listed as Inventor)
This was a very interesting project from my time at BR&T. I was workign on a team to build a system for improving the shimming process on the 787. The baseline process was based on bringing the two parts together, then having mechanics physically measure the gaps and cut them to fit. Instead, we built a system that could accurately surface scan both parts, before assembly then digitally assemble them to create shims without flow disruption. We increased first pass quality, and even offered a refined ability to optimize flight characteristics through digital test fitting.
Then, as a follow-on process improvement we worked with the University of Washington to perform several machine learning applications. we found that a sparse sampling model could reproduce accurate shims to an extreme level. While the technology used for the scanning didn't offer time savings through reduced point count, the information could be transferred to other single-point metrology systems.
A350 XWB Wing Assembly
During my time at Electroimpact I worked on several large wing assembly systems. First the A400M wing jig, several developmental test articles, then the A350XWB horizontal wing build. The horizontal build brought many unique challenges to the process of wing building. But, by bucking the long history of vertical assemblies the system was able to leverage many benefits during the assembly process. My personal roll was the upper cover manipulating jacks, and the in-process rib stiffeners. These two key systems were key to allow the complex tacking and automated drilling of the upper panel.
777 Body Join FlexTrack
This Project was from my time at Electroimpact. The Flextrack concept is based on a flexible spring steel drive rack, offset from vacuum cups. The cups have individual Venturi vacuum generators, and pull the rail to conform to parts underneath. On the 777 barrel join, we sized this technology up to span the entire pattern of the splice joints. This meant that the carriage width increased and needed a second drive and rotational alignment mechanism. I was responsible for the hardware above the A-axis, as well as the lifting hardware. The System drastically increased production reliability, speed and reduced operator fatigue injuries.