5721 160th Ave
West Olive, MI 49406-9151
E-mail Personal Web Page
Currently retired as of 2023-12-31. Not actively seeking employment at present. I leave this document on-line just in case I might change my mind. Because one never knows. Although exactly what it is that one never knows, probably we’ll never know.
Turbine systems combustion: light-off & blow out at flows up to 700 PPH with turbine and diesel fuels. Contaminated fuel endurance. Pressure endurance and burst. Automotive fatigue, durability, and anti-vibration. Robotics assembly final check-off.
Meters for flow, pressure, strain, load, torque, extension, heat, cold and resonant vibration. Open loop and PID controls to regulate same.
3D CAD in either Rhinocerous 7 or SolidWorks 2017. Electrical wiring by hand, documented ex-post-facto. Electronic circuits for custom PCBs via KiCAD. Entire automated test-control systems programmed in LabVIEW.
Once granted a $2K merit bonus for the complete re-design and re-programming of a commercially purchased $250K production test stand which failed utterly to meet spec. That unit is still in place, running production, these past several years.
Coded an OS in LabVIEW for a fully automated, contaminated fuel, endurance test stand that holds to spec flight mission flow profiles on punps flowing jet fuel made nearly opaque with entrained ferric and ferrous oxides, graphite-epoxy dust, carbon-fiber nano-rods, Arizona road dust, crushed quartz, milled cotton lint, and napthalenic acid.
A bit dated here: Unimate, PRAB, and ABB. Multi-axis test fixtures are very like robots in any case.
Electrical, electronic, and hydaulic repair, upgrade, or re-design.
On both Linux and Windows I’ve written small databases in PostgreSQL and SQLite. I like to document by hand in XML/XSLT (this resume, for example), HTML/CSS, and (rarely) PostScript. As a hobby I code antenna-design calculators in LabVIEW for free distribution on-line. Perl is my tool of choice for parsing data sets running to millions of lines.
Employer: Woodward Inc, 700 North Centennial, Zeeland MI 49464
Dates: June 2006 ― December 2023
Duties: Automating formerly manual tests performed on turbine engine fuel nozzles. Mechanical re-design, dis- and re-assembly. Also original designs all my own. Programming from scratch mostly in LabVIEW. Operating said equipment once built. A few permanent installations, reportedly still in use: contaminated fuel endurance; production pass/fail flow-measuring test stands. A great many one-off test installations: fuel nozzle light-off & blowout; extreme temperature enduance, etc.
Employer: Paulstra CRC, 460 Fuller N.E., Grand Rapids MI 49503
Dates: June 2003 ― June 2006
Duties: Fatigue and durability testing of anti-vibration products using MTS FlexTest systems and software. Design of multi-axis hydraulic test stands. Parsing and reduction of test track recordings for laboratory playback. Calibration of laboratory and production test stands.
Employer: Benteler Automotive, 9000 E. Michigan Ave., Galesburg MI 49053
Dates: May 1990 ― November 2002
Duties: Repaired equipment, most particularly ABB robotic teach pendants. Administered several small databases. Obtained quotations for new equipment. Provided on-going support of the Auburn Hills test lab through remote control via a VPN tunnel.
Employer: Benteler Automotive, 9000 E. Michigan Ave., Galesburg MI 49053
Dates: May 1990 ― August 2001
Duties: Data acquisition, reduction and analysis using RPC-III. Write of tests sequences using FlexTest IIM and MPT. Maintain bi-annual A2LA accreditation status. Schedule maintenance of all hydraulic equipment. Schedule rotated calibration of all sensors. Documented all internal procedures.
Employer: Prab Robots, 5944 E. Kilgore, Kalamazoo MI 49001-9776
Dates: July 1987 ― May 1990
Duties: Quality control in re-manufactured robot plant. Functional testing of all components and assemblies. Troubleshooting and repair. Occasional customer service call if problem eluded field service personnel.
Employer: Kalamazoo College, Physics Dept., 1200 Academy, Kalamazoo MI 49007-3295
Dates: August 1986 ― July 1987
Duties: Maintain and calibrate all equipment used in the Biology, Chemistry and Physics departments. Such equipment included: chromatographs, spectrometers, balances and scales, etc. Also some light machining.
Employer: Allen Testproducts, 8001 Angling Rd, Portage MI 49002-7898
Dates: May 1983 ― May 1986
Duties: Hand built the initial prototypes for the second-generation Allen Engine Analyzer. Performed numerous board level modifications and uncounted performance tests. Designed all of the cable harnesses. Supervised assembly of the first pre-production run.
Discharge: Honorable
Rate & Rank: Mineman 3rd Class
Duties: Assembled and tested explosive underwater mines. Calibrated seismic, pressure, acoustic and magnetic firing mechanisms. Assigned for six months to travel with civilian engineers prototyping the Mk67 Submarine Launched Mobile Mine. Appeared in official USN training film about same: PHOTO . Info here: About SLMM .
I would be pleased to present diplomas for each of the following.
May 1983, Kalamazoo Valley Community College, 6767 West O Ave, Kalamazoo MI 49009-9663
September 2006, SympaTech Corp, Indianapolis IN
A one-day seminar on particle and drop size analysis systems.
September 2003, nCode Int. & SoMat Corp.
A one-day seminar on fatigue as a surface effect phenomenon.
September 1999, MTS Systems Corp., Minneapolis MN.
A course on state of the art data reduction and analysis techniques.
April 1997, MTS Systems Corp., Minneapolis MN.
A course on control software for servo-hydraulic test fixtures.
November 1996, MTS Systems Corp., Minneapolis MN.
An entry level course on automotive testing procedures.
February 1992, Intec Controls Corp, Walpole MA.
Course on a vendor-specific PLC software for large-scale facilities employing Opto-22 controls.
June 1990, Measurements Group, Raleigh NC.
Course on selecting, applying and calibrating sensors for measuring stress and strain.
June 1990, Schenck Pegasus, Troy MI.
Course on a now-obsolete 4-axis servo-hydraulic controller.
April 1977, Naval Weapons Lab, Silver Springs MD.
Submarine Launched Mobile Mine technical and operational prototype team ad hoc training.
September 2002, ABB University, Auburn Hills MI.
In-depth and detailed robot programming course.
September 2002, ABB University, Auburn Hills MI.
Entry level robot programming course.
September 1988, ABB Robotics Inc.
Formerly a Vice President for Woodward, and prior to then a Program Director at Benteler Automotive. Scott can inform of my performance under a host of several supervisors at two different companies. View Letter
Formerly the Engineering Development Manager for Benteler Automotive and before that my direct supervisor as head of the Test Department for five plus years. Ted can provide further details on the full scope of my varied talents and unique successes. View Letter
Former head of the Benteler’s Test Department at its new facility in Auburn Hills. Santosh can inform of how I was instrumental as a resource during his period of transition. View Letter
Human Resources department at Benteler in Auburn Hills with access to my past performance reviews and other records. View Letter
These couples each have known me twenty years plus.
828 South Rose
Kalamazoo MI 49001
E-mail B.J.
2018 Waite Avenue
Kalamazoo MI 49008
I like something concrete to show for my efforts even when it comes to hobbies. These all produce something useful or at least entertaining to somebody somewhere.
Extra Class FCC amateur radio license since 1982 KY8D .
Commercial Radiotelegraph license T000000139 obtained 2019.
The naive, but altruistic aim of Esperanto is to become everybody’s second language. I own translation rights to SF stories by Jack Vance, Clifford D. Simak, and Clark Ashton Smith, all of which I publish as ebooks free-of-charge on the Internet. My Translations
Jack Vance was an author, winner of the Edgar, Hugo, Nebula & World Fantasy awards. I collaborated in an international project to re-publish Jack’s complete works. My part was OCR scanning and pre-proofing several of the forty-four volumes. I am listed by name in the limited-edition, hardcover collector sets which now sell for thousands of dollars each. Jack Vance
The least boring way I know of to keep in shape. I attained 1st Dan (black belt) in Tae Kwon Do on 2006-10-14. Had also dabbled in a bit of Hakko Ryu, Tang Soo Do, Aiki-no-jutsu, and (kindly don’t laugh) even Bujinkan. Later earned rank also in Sho Bu Do Bujitsu Jujitsu. Now, though, I’ve got just a wee bit too old to endure being tossed around like a rag doll.
