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Mechanical Design

JLS Automation

1 write-up

Title: Hot Sauce Bottle Case Loading Robot
Description: A robotic case packer for nine bottle and case formats, which I took over mid-project after an acquisition and carried through acceptance.

Industry: Specialty food (bottled sauce)
Dwg no.: PS-2026-607
Year: 2023

CHL Systems

20 write-ups

Title: Adjustable Chub Clamping System
Description: A continuously adjustable, dial-set clamp retrofit that let a single-product meat line run several chub diameters.

Industry: Raw meat
Dwg no.: PS-2026-504
Year: 2018

Title: Bottle Conveyance Line
Description: A pharmaceutical bottle line with pivoting sections to keep the plant passable and formed Lexan covers to keep open bottles clean.

Industry: Pharmaceutical
Dwg no.: PS-2026-518
Year: 2020

Title: Chip Processing Line Relocation
Description: Turning a chip line move into a redesign, with a divert chute that lets any line feed either type of slicer.

Industry: Snack food
Dwg no.: PS-2026-520
Year: 2021

No photo

Title: Chocolate Bar Case Unloading Concept
Description: A quoted concept that inverts full cases of chocolate bars and releases them onto a chute, instead of picking bars out one at a time.

Industry: Confectionery
Dwg no.: PS-2026-515
Year: 2019

Title: Chocolate Pump and Separator Skid
Description: A self-contained, jacketed skid on casters that screens unrefined grains out of warm chocolate.

Industry: Snack food
Dwg no.: PS-2026-507
Year: 2018

Title: Confectionery Pilot Line Conveyor
Description: A nearly hundred foot marshmallow pilot line conveyor with depositors and a sugar bed, designed into a space still under construction.

Industry: Confectionery
Dwg no.: PS-2026-512
Year: 2019

Title: Cooker and Chiller Discharge Conveyors
Description: Two pet food transfer conveyors that pin into either of two configurations and strip down quickly for washdown.

Industry: Pet food
Dwg no.: PS-2026-516
Year: 2020

Title: Corn Conveyance and Distribution System
Description: An overhead conveyor loop that carries corn over a full plant floor and drops it to sixteen stations below.

Industry: Agriculture
Dwg no.: PS-2026-508
Year: 2018

No photo

Title: Dumper Guarding Safety Upgrade
Description: Three layers of safeguarding, including a mechanical locking pin, around a nearly one ton hydraulic dumper in a raw meat plant.

Industry: Raw meat
Dwg no.: PS-2026-501
Year: 2018

Title: Fat Percentage Blending System
Description: A ground beef line that recirculates fat-rich trim and blends two streams to run just under the regulated fat limit.

Industry: Raw meat
Dwg no.: PS-2026-514
Year: 2019

Title: Frozen Block Separator
Description: A hydraulic machine that replaced a jackhammer job nobody could keep staffed, and went on to become a standard CHL product.

Industry: Pet food
Dwg no.: PS-2026-505
Year: 2018

Title: Incline Meat Auger Conveyor
Description: An inclined screw conveyor chosen over a belt because raw meat slides back down steep belts and screws are easier to clean.

Industry: Raw meat
Dwg no.: PS-2026-510
Year: 2019

Title: Induction Sealer Line Integration
Description: Adding rotary accumulation around an existing corner of a pharmaceutical line so short stoppages stop shutting down the whole line.

Industry: Pharmaceutical
Dwg no.: PS-2026-513
Year: 2019

No photo

Title: Mechanical Design Engineering at CHL Systems
Description: Twenty custom equipment projects across eight industries in three years, designed alongside the shop that built them.

Industry: Food, pharmaceutical, and agricultural processing
Dwg no.: PS-2026-500
Year: 2018

Title: Medical Device Sterilizing Line
Description: A thirteen-station heavy pallet line through explosive-atmosphere sterilizing chambers, which I took over mid-project and commissioned.

Industry: Medical devices
Dwg no.: PS-2026-502
Year: 2018

Title: Pharmaceutical Bottle Lifter
Description: A sanitary clamp and lift bar that let a machine lift heavy, awkward bottles of liquid so operators no longer had to.

Industry: Pharmaceutical
Dwg no.: PS-2026-509
Year: 2018

No photo

Title: Rail Car Fall Protection Upgrade
Description: An engineered 54 foot horizontal lifeline over a rail car cleaning area, replacing a safety line nobody could vouch for.

Industry: Snack food
Dwg no.: PS-2026-506
Year: 2018

No photo

Title: Scale and Bagger Loader Platform
Description: An elevated, bolt-together platform for a multihead weigher, designed to fit through the building's doorway in pieces.

Industry: Snack food
Dwg no.: PS-2026-511
Year: 2019

No photo

Title: Steam Cooker Outfeed Slicer
Description: A four-bar linkage guard that folds out of the way so a 150 lb knife assembly can be lifted safely for sharpening.

Industry: Pet food
Dwg no.: PS-2026-503
Year: 2018

Title: Yogurt Tub Conveyance System
Description: Dairy conveyance with a fail-safe roller gate that lifts on a fire alarm so the fire door can close.

Industry: Dairy
Dwg no.: PS-2026-519
Year: 2020

Hart Mechanical

5 write-ups

Title: Arsenic Removal Filtration Skid
Description: A stainless skid and piping package that turned a customer's filter vessels, pumps, and valves into one transportable water treatment unit.

Industry: Water treatment
Dwg no.: PS-2026-401
Year: 2017

Title: Centrifuge Piping System
Description: A valve and instrument manifold on its own stand, piped into a customer's centrifuge.

Industry: Industrial processing
Dwg no.: PS-2026-402
Year: 2017

Title: Dry Mixer Counterbalance Lid
Description: A replacement mixer lid that always wants to close, solving a fall hazard, a dust problem, and loading access at once.

Industry: Industrial processing
Dwg no.: PS-2026-403
Year: 2017

Title: Rooftop Refrigeration Skid Enclosure
Description: A rooftop equipment enclosure whose wind and snow analysis caught a racking collapse before it was ever built.

Industry: Industrial refrigeration
Dwg no.: PS-2026-404
Year: 2017

No photo

Title: Tank Access Platform
Description: An access platform for a process tank in a room with under four feet of headroom, designed for a former employer who asked me back.

Industry: Industrial processing
Dwg no.: PS-2026-405
Year: 2020

BorgWarner

1 write-up

No photo

Title: Variable Cam Timing Co-op
Description: A year in automotive product engineering, testing and measuring prototype cam phasers and designing the stations to build and test them.

Industry: Automotive
Dwg no.: PS-2026-300
Year: 2014

Penn State

3 write-ups

Title: 3-D Printed Rocket
Description: A SolidWorks class final project that flew the highest in the class, and left time to help classmates with theirs.

Industry: Education
Dwg no.: PS-2026-702
Year: 2016

Title: Drill to Vacuum Conversion
Description: A class project that turned a power drill into a vacuum by designing the whole flow path, and picked up twice as much as the next team.

Industry: Consumer products
Dwg no.: PS-2026-701
Year: 2015

Title: UAV-Mounted Meteorological Data Acquisition
Description: A senior capstone replacing single-use weather balloon instruments with a recoverable sensor package on a quadcopter.

Industry: Atmospheric research
Dwg no.: PS-2026-703
Year: 2016

Personal

3 write-ups

Title: Aquaponic Farm Filter and Solar Charger, Eswatini
Description: New solids-separating filters for a small aquaponic farm's systems, built from hardware store parts, plus a more efficient solar charging setup.

Industry: Small-scale agriculture
Dwg no.: PS-2026-901
Year: 2017

Title: CIM-Powered Belt Sander
Description: A belt sander designed around surplus robotics motors, and a cost analysis that convinced me not to build it.

Industry: Shop tools
Dwg no.: PS-2026-902
Year: 2021

No photo

Title: Winch-Driven Lifting Boom
Description: Redesigning a working, one-off utility vehicle hoist into a drawing package that outside fabricators could quote.

Industry: Small-scale agriculture and grounds equipment
Dwg no.: PS-2026-903
Year: 2025

FIRST Robotics

1 write-up

Title: FIRST Robotics Mentorship
Description: Fifteen years mentoring high school robotics teams in engineering, design, and strategy, after four years as a student on one.

Industry: STEM education
Dwg no.: PS-2026-801
Year: 2007