Four Examples of Design Concepts

The following four devices are examples of my work. While they vary in complexity and application, they share a common merit: All of these design solutions required abandonment of prior concepts.

• Microscope Slide Contacting Filter: Treatment of Six Degrees of Freedom

  This is the most analytical design example. There were specified constraints and freedoms in all three axes of translation and all three axes of rotation in three different regions of travel -- approach, during contact and after full contact.
  
  

• Actuator with: Bi-directional Travel, Preset Seating Force at End-of-Travel, Variable End-of-Travel Position (+/- .100"), Obstruction Sense and Shutdown, Maximum Force Limit for Safety

  The latter four of the five functions listed were all the result of adding two springs and a sense lever to a lead screw, so that the lead screw would not bind up when driving a carriage into a rigid stop. This solution demonstrates how a small expansion in mechanism complexity gained a significant expansion in its functionality.
  
  

• Measuring Efficiency on a Low Speed, High Frequency, Variable Reluctance Generator

  While a pony brake is well established as a means of determining torque of a rotating system, the application of a parallel leaf spring provides an elegant, more accurate measurement. Parallel leaf spring suspensions appeal to me because they are an excellent linear bearing from a no-moving-parts assembly. Another attractive feature is the measurement of force at a condition of zero displacement.
  
  

• Leveling an Underwater Habitat Anchored at Four Random Locations

  This example is one of those solutions that is obvious and simple, once described. A 3D vector problem is solved by measuring a full-scale physical model.