Form Lab
Key Skills Mix
Company Name: Form Lab Ltd.
Website: www.theformlab.com
Job Title: Technical Director (Owner)
Dates: January 2012 - present
Location: Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK.
Form Lab is a product design and engineering consultancy based at Duke Studios in Leeds, West Yorkshire. We're a micro consultancy offering a range of design and engineering services to larger consultancies and companies involved in the design and development of products across a wide range of industries. To date we've been lucky enough to have worked with some big names on some truly game changing products. You can see examples of my involvement as well as other projects I've delivered in the portfolio section of this site.
I started Greener Designed Ltd. back in Jan 2012 (as was called then) with the vision of building a cleantech company capable of taking an idea and developing it in to a fully fledged sale-able product. By offering design and engineering services to clients we could use the profits generated from these sales used to fund the development of our own products. We re-branded in January 2015 from Greener Designed Ltd. to Form Lab Ltd. with the help of local design agency Passport to give our consultancy services wider market appeal. While our re-brand aims to give us wider market appeal it in no means has diminished our commitment to work on projects and technologies with the goal of eliminating our consumption of non sustainable resources.
As a micro entity my role is cross functional involving all aspect of managing the business while also delivering on the promises we've made to our clients. Its a challenging role that often requires me to build upon existing, or quickly learn new skills to meet the requirements of the task at hand but I can honestly say it rarely feels like work.
On a day to day basis this could include meeting a new client to pitch our services, discuss a new project requirement, create a technical specification, statement of work, project plan and associated quotation for works involved. To sketching up concepts, designing mechanism, calculating forces, 3D modelling ideas, using CAE techniques to validate designs, and manage the development process through stage gates to deliver robust products fit for purpose.
We work closely with a few select freelancers and contractors to allow us to scale our resources up and down as each project requires. This allows us to ensure we stay competitive and have the right skills, at the right time as each project requires.
Our core services include;
For more information on the services we offer head over to the Form Lab website.
Kinneir Dufort
Company Name: Kinneir Dufort
Website: http://www.kinneirdufort.com/
Job Title: Mechanical Design Engineer (Contract)
Dates: November 2013 - August 2014
Location: Bristol, UK.
Key Skills Mix
"Kinneir Dufort is an award-winning integrated research, innovation, design and product development company with over 30 years’ experience helping companies discover, create, develop and realise tangible new products, brands and experiences.
We operate globally across many different sectors with some of the world’s largest brands and corporations, as well as SMEs and start ups, creating winning solutions in healthcare, consumer, business-to-business, defence and security. We have a multi-disciplined team with ISO 9001 and 13845 accreditation, allowing us to work at the forefront global medical device development.
Combining user-understanding with technical know-how, the expertise areas we offer encompass research, creative innovation, strategic branding, product design and development, prototyping, electronics & software and low volume manufacture."
Source: http://www.kinneirdufort.com/about
Working on site at both their Host Street office and Tech Centre in the north of Bristol I had the pleasure of working with some of the companies most talented designers and engineers, on a revolutionary smoking cessation portable electronic device for a global healthcare and medical devices company.
My role involved support of the product development process by providing the team with analytical data to back up the design and engineering decisions, including but not limited to;
Stress analysis of mechanical assemblies including non-linear spring & catch components.
Thermal analysis of composite micro heating element for maximum performance & efficiency.
Fluid flow analysis of multiple device configurations focusing on internal pressure for operation & optimal drug delivery.
Conjugate heat transfer analysis of multiple device configurations reducing design, build & test cycles leading on to PK (pharmacokinetics) study.
Development of test and validation system capable of quantifying the performance of microfluidic dosing mechanism.
Design and prototype LED optics suitable for injection moulding in line with industrial design concepts.
Performance testing of drug delivery system to meet vapor droplet specification.
Magnomatics
Key Skills MIx
Company Name: Magnomatics Ltd.
Website: http://www.magnomatics.com/
Job Title: Mechanical Design Engineer (Contract)
Dates: April 2013 - October 2013
Location: Sheffield, South Yorkshire, UK.
Magnomatics is a high technology engineering company that is developing and manufacturing products for many global industries based on its proprietary ground breaking magnetic gear technology.
Magnomatics have developed two derivative products based on magnetic gears, the Pseudo Direct Drive PDD® and MAGSPLIT®. The PDD is a very efficienct high torque low speed motor/generator highly suited to rail traction, actuation, fan motors, marine propulsion and wind power. MAGSPLIT is a very efficient power-split hybrid transmission and is being evaluated by a number of vehicle manufacturers. MAGSPLIT is very simple having just two rotating elements and has the added benefit of filtering torsional vibrations.
The company is active in many market sectors, including hybrid vehicles, renewables, marine propulsion, aerospace, rail, and oil & gas.
- http://www.magnomatics.com/
I began contracting for Magnomatics shortly after leaving Slipstream Engineering Design. As my first contract position I couldn't have asked for a better client, giving me the opportunity to get involved in a number of key projects. As a high tech dynamic engineering company it was clear to see that right first time was key to the success of the business, coupled with a technical and management team with a clear vision for getting their novel technology into all industries that could benefit from efficient drive technology.
My role focused on realising the technical direction of the lead engineers into manufacturable products suitable for customer technology demonstration & test validation. I predominantly worked on products in their PDD product group which included;
Wing flap actuator for an Italian aerospace OEM.
Lightweight, modular multi megawatt drive for a global renewable energy consultancy.
High utilisation in wheel electric vehicle (EV) motor for commercial vehicles.
In addition to working on PDD products I was also tasked with root cause analysis of a high speed turbo shaft failure using numerical & analytical techniques for a tier 1 global automotive OEM and a multi axis test rig for the static & dynamic testing of electrical machines suitable for torsional loads up to 6kNm & equivalent magnetic loads of up to 3kN.