Work Experience

Titan, Inc.

Hydraulic Design Engineer, August 2011- present

    My title is Hydraulic Design Engineer.  But in practice, I am in many roles such as Software Design, Mechanical Design and Electrical Design.  The type of work at Titan is all project based.  I have been involved in or responsible for many of the phases of a project from developing the concept from customer requirements, quoting the material and labor costs, design work in the mentioned disciplines, supporting skilled labor during construction, debugging the machines and supporting them in the field.  This is a list of completed projects by project number and customer.  

9925 John Deere Dubuque Works Square Baler Test Stand

Principal hydraulic engineer for this project similar to 9772 but with added circuits and a revised tubing layout.

9750 Caterpillar Wuxi Section B-Valve Test Stand

9751 Caterpillar Wuxi Stack B-Valve Test Stand

9750 Caterpillar Wuxi Section B-Valve Test Stand

9715 CNH Racine CVT Transmission Assembly Line

9772 John Deere Dubuque Works Round Baler Test Stand

9657 Caterpillar-Joliet Facility Gear Pump Test Stand

Principal hydraulic engineer on a $1.6 Million test stand that allows for up to 6 different pumps to and tested simultaneously through 6 separate circuits each capable of 700 Liter per minute of flow with variable back pressure from 70 kPa to 7000 kPa.  I designed and detailed the pipe layout using Solidworks Routing add-on which helped me meet the requirement for  low back pressure on large flows and make it all fit in the limited envelope.  

Bucyrus International, Inc.

Staff Engineer, June 2010-Present

Work in the Simulation and Controls Group of the Special Projects Division

    The Special Projects Division is described as the group that sets the bar for the rest of the organization.  It is comprised of some of the most experienced and talented individuals fit for embarking on new product development and assisting other divisions with their specialized needs.  My position is in the Simulation and Controls group which develops the mathematical models for machine operation and control software.

Develop simulation models to support control software development

    The first undertaking at this position was to develop an operator model that simulated the operator inputs to a machine to drive it through a predefined operation.  The operator model is event-based rather than time-based like the previous efforts before I was hired.  This allowed the same operations to be made regardless of the adjustments or improvements to the control software.

    From there, I have become responsible for improving and maintaining models needed for the special projects group.  The two facets of this work involve enhancing one model for increased fidelity and developing a second for use in real-time applications. 

Technical Lead for Hardware in the Loop Simulation laboratory development

    By volunteering my knowledge of prototype controllers and electronics, I was eventually named technical lead for a hardware in the loop simulation laboratory.  The goal is to qualify the control hardware and software in a laboratory setting before use on real machinery.  I specified the necessary hardware and designed the electrical layout to achieve this goal.  In addition, the real-time capable model mentioned earlier is used to serve as the plant model in place of the real machinery.

Group Lead for Test Planning

    After expressing an interest in organizing the sparse discussions about testing into a concerted effort, I was granted the lead representative of the group for developing test plans and procedures pertaining to the control software.

MSOE- Rapid Prototyping Research

Undergraduate/Graduate Research Assistant, June 2006-Present

Developed product from fundamental research to managing production line.

    On day one of this position I was introduced to this idea for making models of molecules that incorporated the color coding for the atoms and more accurate representation of an electron cloud than any other commercially made model.  At that time I only had a background as a junior electrical engineering student.  I taught myself to use Solidworks CAD software and began making prototype plastic injection molds to run experiments.

    From the experiments, a list of specifications and a "working window" was established for what was possible to mold with this new method called Over Molded Balls (OMB).  Molds were made by a tool maker from the CAD models that I created.

    In conjunction with mold work, I tackled the material handling issue associated with this process.  Several small plastic balls needed to be inserted into the plastic injection mold in a time period that matched the cycle time of the plastic injection process.  Seniors at MSOE are required to complete a design project and I convinced three other seniors to join me in solving this issue.  Matt Dictus, Nalleli Luevano, Hans Viets and myself worked together to complete the project which resulted in a device dubbed the OMB machine.

    After we graduated I stayed at my position in RPR and began graduate school.  The OMB machine worked very well for the materials and time that we had to complete the project.  I wasn't satisfied with the PLC on the machine because it was a donated unit and we received essentially what the company had or wanted to promote.  I needed more flexibility  with the IO's and a more powerful programming language.  So I submitted a proposal and received the equipment needed to upgrade the system and make it more suited for use.

    It was at this time that things were coming together to develop the OMB process into a full manufacturing method.  We approached several companies about creating the tooling and doing the manufacturing but had little luck.  The companies that felt capable of developing this process would dismiss it because of the low volume of production.  The projected amount of parts needed in a year was 100,000 and these companies only wanted to be involved if millions of parts were going to be made.  It did not seem likely that this project would happen if the work was contracted out.  

    So we began looking for injection molding machines to purchase to set up a new laboratory to develop the process and eventually manufacture the products.  When a machine was purchased, I disassembled the press and re-assembled it in order to transport it to its location.  I hooked up the electrical cabinet to the press and designed and installed a new safety cage to replace the one damaged in transit.  An interface was installed on the machine that allowed the press to communicate with the OMB machine and I programmed the OMB machine to automate the process as much as possible.  

    I taught myself how to operate and program the plastic injection machine to properly fill the molds.  This OMB process is a form of insert molding and has many subtle unique characteristics because it isn't just a matter of producing a properly filled part by having the appropriate injection pressure, shot size, packing time, temperature, etc.  The plastic ball inserts will melt and 'streak' with the injected plastic or move the spheres out of place if the parameters are not correct.  Because of this complication, many man hours were spent changing parameters during which I developed a strong understanding of plastic injection.  

    When I graduated with my Master's degree, over 50,000 parts had been created by the manufacturing team that I hired and supervised.  Nine different molds were made functional in order to produce the 22 different parts sold in various kits by 3D Molecular Design.