PROFESSIONAL RESUME
My Experience
January 2018 - Present
Orthopedic Drill
I was the project manager and the lead mechanical engineer on a project to create an automatically plunging and retracting drilling fixture to take measurements for a clinical study. The device was able to measure drilling depth in a novel way, which will be able to reduce the chances of patient injury during the intended operation. The device featured a drill chuck mounted to a DC motor. The DC motor was connected to a force gauge and a linear actuator. The whole drilling assembly rotated around a central point to allow the test to be able to drill at any angle.
Surgical Brushes
I project managed and was the sole engineer on a project where I created prototype designs for new medical brushes (second design is below). One of the brush designs was a densely populated brush head that was connected to a hex shaft with a handle that freely rotates around the shaft without moving axially along the shaft. Four total prototypes were created by hand using 3D printed assembly fixtures. I manage two engineering interns while they populated the 3D printed brush heads while I machined the hex shaft and the handle on the lathe.
The bristles were made from monofilament fishing line and were cut by hand with the assistance of a 3D printed spool. The spool spun enough filament to create one cluster of bristles. The bristles were held in with hand made staples, which were pushed in with an arbor press.
The assembly fixtures held the hole intending to receive the bristles normal to the movement of the arbor press. The assembly fixtures featured a detent and a splined shaft which located and locked the brush head in the correct location. Multiple fixtures were used to populate the entire brush head.
The brushes to the right were designed to emulate a pipe cleaning brush. It needed to have flexibility and prevent injury while the being used in a drill. I used spring back stainless steel wire with pellethane tubing surrounding the wire. The wire was placed on a lathe, bristles were placed between two strands of wire, and the wire was twisted. The tip of the brush was then dip coated to prevent the brush from damaging the patient during surgery.
Balloon Catheter Inflation Device
I designed a precision inflation device that is used to inflate the balloon attached at the distal end of a catheter. The device featured a toggle switch at the top to actuate a spring plunger. The plunger is pushed into a cavity to create a precise volume change. The cavity was connected to a female luer lock and a transducer. The luer lock connects to the catheter and the transducer is connected to a measurement device that will output a pressure. The components in the assembly were injection molded, excluding the spring, transducer and wire assembly.
Reliability Test Fixture
The first ever project I worked on at Northeast Biomedical was designing a reliability testing device. The goal was to recreate the environment that a device attached to an IV pole would encounter. We wanted to emulate acceleration and deceleration at walking speeds, impacts onto the side and front of the device, walking over bumps, and vibrations from the floor. We user linear actuators, pneumatic actuators, and vibrating motors to simulate this environment.
Machining Projects
Northeast Biomedical has a Bridgeport style milling machine with a ProtoTRAK 2 axis CNC retrofitted onto the mill. I taught myself how to program the CNC (with and without using a CAM software) and how to calculate feeds and speeds for optimal machining. I was able to create parts used on production devices, parts for various R&D purposes, and personal projects.
Non-Design Work
While at NEB I was contracted to various companies to help out with numerous different engineering tasks. Below is a list of some of the tasks performed:
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Test method development
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Working in a team to create FMEA documents
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Consulting on Drop Testing and structural design of a medical cart
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Creating IQ and OQ documents for devices used in the manufacturing process of catheters
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Created work instructions for catheter assembly
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Wrote proposals for potential projects
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Created wiring diagrams and worked with cable houses to create wiring harnesses
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Lead brainstorming sessions to generate novel approaches for customers
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Created processes for tipping catheters with an RF tipping machine
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Worked with exotic materials such as Nitinol (super elastic and shape memory tempers)