White KNight Fluid Handling
White Knight Fluid Handling manufactures high-quality ultrapure fluid handling products for the most demanding applications in stringent, high-tech industries, such as semiconductor.
My Role
Initially my main responsibility was to build and execute a process which reviewed old drawings for production parts and perform tolerance analysis and update drawing standards. Once the process was built and established I was moved to working as a design engineer for new product development. I was eventually made to be the lead of the development of a new high flow bellows pump.
high-flow, high-purity double-bellows pump
Led the development of a new high-flow, high-purity double-bellows pump as an expansion to the main bellows pump line capable of more than double the flow rate of pumps in the existing lineup.
High Flow Shuttle Valve Design Overhaul
Animated Operational Diagram
Pneumatic Bellows Pump Cross-Sectional View
The Goal
The goal of this project was to design a new shuttle valve capable of running the high flow bellows pump at full capacity without air restrictions
BackGround
For the design of the high flow bellows pump, the current largest existing shuttle valve used on the 140L bellows pump was restricting the airflow and now allowing the pump to run at full capacity. When reviewing the current design for shuttles I discovered that there were a lot of unnecessary complexities and inefficiencies in the design. Another issue was that the standard design featured a high tolerance ceramic spool and sleeve that could not be made in house which led to long lead times and higher prices.
Results
31% increase in air flow allowed for full pump operation
Significant reduction in machining time and part complexity of shuttle body
Reduction of overall shuttle cost
Increased design robustness
Replaced the ceramic parts with in house machined PET-P parts.
Simplified magnet detent to only require single magnet to prevent centering
Increased pump operating range (Was able to operate at both lower and higher ranges of PSI)
Kept very detailed documents tracking design intent and prototype testing results.
Results were so successful that there were proposals to expand my design to the rest of the bellows pump lineup.
Glide Seal Shuttle Valve Design
Glide Seal Shuttle Valve Design
Machined Prototype
Rapid Prototyping
Through 3D printing I was able to iterate on the design very rapidly. Through these iterations I was able to rapidly test and optimize the airflow and timing of the pump which resulted in an optimized result
My high flow shtutle design with new external mufflers
High Flow Shuttle Muffler Design
The Goal
Design a muffler capable of handling the 70 SCFM airflow while lowering the pump noise to a safe operating range (<80dB)
Background
Standard muffler design used on previous shuttle valves were too restrictive for air exhaust on the high flow pump. This would cause the pump to run poorly with higher internal pressures. Even expanding the previous design to allow for enough air flow did not
Results
Was successful in developing an external muffler design that attached to the new high flow shuttle and reduced noise level below 80dB even when running at max pressure.
Helical Bellows for Injection Molding
The Goal
The goal of this project was to determine the feasibility of bellows with helical flutes.
Background
Current bellows are machined out of PTFE with extremely tight tolerances and are a major cause of scrap. The standard bellows design uses concentric flutes which cannot be produced by any other means. Helical flutes could open the door for injection molding to significantly reduce cost and scrap as well as potentially addressing current bellows issues such as flutes sticking or ballooning.
Testing
In order to test this potential design I built a fully parametric SolidWorks model that could be adjusted to match any of our current bellows sizes as well as adjust number of helical flutes, the helix taper and the amount extended in the model. Using this model I used FDM, SLA, and PolyJet 3D printing to test prototypes in existing pumps to compare to standard bellows. Due to the complex nature the model I built a strong foundation on complex parametric modeling in SolidWorks as well as significant experience in SLA printing.
Drawing Review Process
The Goal
To build and implement a process that would review old drawings and bring them up to current standards and ensure parts are being made to print in effort to reduce scrap.
My Role
My job was to work with other departments to build the review process and execute the design engineering portion of it. Once the process was built I used criteria such as scrap rate, forecasted quantities, and upcoming manufacturing runs to select drawings to put through the process. For each drawing I would analyze the part in assembly and perform a tolerance stack analysis. I would then loosen the overtoleranced dimensions and ensure the drawings were properly defining the pars up to the current company standards. Once I finished the updated drawing I would pass it through manufacturing and quality and oversee it's progress and track it's completion.
Implementation
For this process I built an in depth spreadsheet that outlined each step of the review process across design, manufacturing, and quality departments and tracked and displayed all important metrics on a main page. The excel spreadsheet utilized multiple macros to make the workflow and tracking as efficient and natural as possible. I organzied weekly meetings with each department to track progress and address any issues.
Results
Through this process I was able to gain a strong understanding of a majority of the product lines due to analyzing parts in assembly. It also gave me a much stronger intuition for part tolerancing as well as an understanding on how to make fully defined proper drawings and how to design for manufacturing with tolerance stacks in mind.