For the M-Series Machines, I ensured that all current and future planned end-effectors and accessories could be plug and play from a pneumatics, electrical, and hardware perspective. This involved general catalog engineering such as specifying cable carrier systems and pneumatic blocks and ground up design such as designing end-effectors for multi-head spreaders, single heads, rotary drill attachments. Additionally, all work had to be completed for multiple configurations in roughly 6 months – new tables rolled off the assembly line to customers as soon as we were finished.
I also pioneered the high pressure design for Flow’s first 0-45 Degree wrist, Pivot+. As can be seen in the second photo, this wrist is the only example of a waterjet 5-Axis wrist that does not have the high pressure routed through the b-axis motor. By not needing a hollow shaft motor, costs and the overall size were greatly reduced. Additionally, I acted upon the opportunity to include knowledge I had gained from using water jets extensively to redesigned the geometry inside the cutting head for higher reliability. Lastly, I ensured that all cutting head accessories would be able to be integrated on the new wrist, and designed the bracketry. As can be seen here, a vacuum eductor is mounted off to the side of the cutting head.
Go to flowwaterjet.com to check out their site and more photos
