Most of the designs I have worked on are held within the corporate walls of my previous employers, so displaying pictures and CAD models of them isn’t always possible. However, below is a smattering of descriptions of work performed with informative website links. As I design parts and assemblies for TDE product development and engineering services efforts, I will post models and pictures.
My 3D CAD design experience was put into overdrive while working at Monsanto Company. Monsanto is in the agriculture business big time. The main products are seeds (think corn, soy, cotton, veggies) and agricultural productivity chemicals (think RoundUp). They are extremely driven in all aspects of their business and are willing to explore new approaches to doing research in big ways. That was the case in the Automation Engineering Team (AET) I was a part of for five years.
I worked on nearly 50 different projects of varying scales, serving in different capacities ranging from design engineer to group supervisor. Of the myriad of projects I was involved in, the project that gets the most attention were the seed chippers. I had the opportunity to lead the mechanical design effort for one of the more impressive systems, the Corn Chipper. Along with three other talented mechanical designers, we conceptualized and performed the mechanical design of this system on a very aggressive timeline. The system has been written on several times in open press and a patent has been issued.
Corn Chipper Image Source: Popular Science
I got my start with 3D CAD design using ProEngineer while working at Brewer Science Inc. (BSI) in Rolla, Missouri. BSI is a specialty chemical manufacturer for the semi-conductor industry. They had trouble finding small scale equipment to test their products so they started to design and build their own. Customers saw the equipment and wanted it too, so they started a division to meet that need.
I worked as an Equipment Engineer in their Material, Process, and Machine R&D Division where I led and co-designed various processing tools for a new semiconductor manufacturing process, Contact Planarization, and worked as a lead design engineer for a spin coat model for an automated 300mm wafer processing tool, Talon 300. Neither of these appear to be part of BSI’s current product portfolio, but their Cost Effective Equipment line can give you a sense of the type of equipment I helped to design for the three years I was there.