Development of Custom Machines

I have extensive experience in the development of numerous special machines for assembly and inspection of a diverse range of products, including electronics, optical disks, energy products, personal hygiene products, building products and military ammunition. Many applications required extensive process development, and involved a combination of manufacturing processes and technologies. This section describes some of the more unique machines I have developed.

• Developed, installed and managed the startup of a series of temperature controlled wind tunnels used to rapidly condition thermostats in a high velocity air stream prior to calibration and inspection.

• Developed and installed a battery ampul filling and sealing machine. This fully automatic machine performs precision liquid dispensing of caustic electrolyte into glass ampuls, cryogenic freezing to control electrolyte boil-off and flame sealing of the ampuls using a hydrogen torch. A 30-station dial index machine was double tooled to perform this operation at 60 units/minute.

• Developed and installed semi automated machinery used to manufacture personal hygiene products. This equipment requires a web handling apparatus and two large custom die sets to perform plastic welding and vacuum forming operations. Each die set contains a 40 up array of tools. The welding tools are electrically heated to operate at 450°F, with each weld tool positionally maintained in the array to .005 inch true position and temperature controlled to +/-5°F. This system also employs radiant heaters operating at 1400°F to rapidly and uniformly heat the product to vacuum forming temperature, as well as water heating and cooling. This machinery conforms to FDA GMP.

• Developed and installed a system to automatically assemble 25 mm ammunition to 15 round cartridge belts at 60 rounds/minute. This machine employed a power and free conveyor system. Special pallets were used to deliver and control cartridge belts during cartridge insertion and inspection. A continuous motion mechanism was used to accept cartridges from an accumulation conveyor, singulate, rotate and insert the cartridges into the belt.

• Developed and installed a machine to automatically feed, remove insulation and solder two lead wires to a sensor assembly.

• Developed and installed a pneumatically controlled dial index machine to fill flash tubes with igniter pellets and tape seal.

• Developed and installed a carton unloader to feed 30 mm projectile bodies to a continuous motion cartridge load/assemble/package machine.

• Developed and installed a 6 axis machine which controls the manipulation of 500 LB seam weld heads as part of a flexible sheet metal manufacturing process.

• Developed numerous bench top fixtures to perform crimping, wire bending and process heating and other assembly tasks.

• Developed PLC control systems for a variety of applications using Allen Bradley, GE and Telemechanique controllers.