Home Main Resume page, cover & all Resumes 1 page Resume Complete 3 pg.Resume hj E-Mail me richspens@aol.com & see what I can do for
your Co.
Resume Richard Paul Spens 28515 Seven Mile Rd. Livonia, MI 48152-3501
Updated 6-3- 2011 phone# (248) 474 -2799 e-mail Richspens@aol.com
Objective: Mechanical Tech Apply my BSMET Degree, 1000 hr machine trades Cert,
patent # 5,588,257 and 12 yrs hands-on design & project organizational experience of concept
through production and test of mechanical & Electrical parts and assemblies to make your
product go to market and sell.
As a child I always was driven and coached by my Bendix dad to take apart, understand, then
rebuild (think hack) things as a child. I Science'd my way through HS, machined my way through
College in the Detroit Shops. Employed as an Test Tech, Mechanical Tech, Later Design, then
Product Engineer. Lastly I turned client concepts into specifications, prototypes, sellable reality
for the most important person, the always right Customer. Hopefully, next for you, full time!!!!!.
Summary of Qualifications 12 years experience in design, 10 years in testing, and 7 years
fabricating parts and assemblies. Hands on engineer, jack of many trades well versen and discussing,
drwwing and then building a prodect with test verifivation along the way to productionr e Direct experience
with design and development of mechanical and electrical devices, power transmission, project tracking,
and preliminary and production cost analysis of competing designs. UL and CSA requirements and
methods knowledge applied if required. Product development schedules maintained through critical point
reviews in a team environment. Testing performed in simulated and real-life environments prior to market
introduction. Additional experience in packaging printed circuit boards, solving production problems, and
interacting with marketing and customers to specify new project requirements.
RPS Enterprises (Company I Operated) Product Developer 4/1996 - 5/2010
- *Formulated spur Gear design and manufacturing program that calculates 35 interrelated solutions
using 3 input variables. Accelerated the design machining & inspection of manufactured gears and
gear sets.
- * Conceived, developed, made drawings and constructed clients projects. I bought & rebuilt 5
machine tools to origional .002 accuracy.
- * Consulted Electro-mechanical, & Chemical design development & fabrication of Spectroscopic
automated environmental water analyzer
Project/Design Engineer (6/1986-4/1996)
Stanley Home Automation, A division of the Stanley Works Mfg. of Automatic Garage Door Openers. 41700
Gardenbrook Dr., Novi, MI Reported to the Product Line Manager and Engineering Manager.
Responsible for all mechanical research, design, and production support of the residential garage door
opener product line. Requirements included UL & CSA approval and validation, manufacturing
engineering, product testing, production cost analysis, and evaluation of cost reduction/avoidance
proposals.
- · Completed value added plastic gear case assembly, improved design, eliminated previous processing problems
and resultant part failures through an improved structure and material selection. Reduced assembly time by 20% and QC
rejects by 80%.
- · Designed and implemented use of inspection gauges for output shaft that resolved disputes between vendors and
engineering.
- · Redesigned garage door opener using 3D CAD which reduced size, improved lighting, increased ease of customer
installation, and reduced cost ($108.78 to $96.67).
- · Developed a steel tube alternative to a molded plastic structural component that was more cost competitive. The
more robust appearance improved quality perception of product to the dealers. Reduced the total of all return goods by 8 %
- · Transformed a hand worked low volume dealer garage door opener into a modern medium volume consumer
product. New design contained the strength and robustness of the old design with a 50% price reduction.
- · Eliminated grease separation in gear case after performing a complete temperature and lubrication performance
analysis of existing and purposed materials, saved 3 to 4 yearly $5000 lawsuits tormenting my employer.
- · Correctly redefined drawing and QC specifications, vendor process requirements, and built identical gauges for both
our QC and the vendor for plastic timing gear system (molded plastic gears in use) instead of a machined gear set previously
specified. Prevented breaking and skipping of teeth on gears. Avoided an additional product recall.
Mechanical Designer / Mechanical Technician (12/1983 - 4/1986)
Bell Northern Research (a Div. of NORTEL) Northern Telecommunication’s Research & Development division,
a fortune 500 company, 100 Phoenix Dr., Ann Arbor, MI Reported to Mechanical Group Leader.
Worked with mechanical and electrical engineers on designing, fabricating, and assembling parts and
mechanisms using worst case thermodynamic functional analysis for enclosure of Modular Integrated
Voice Data System. Developed and maintained to latest revision prototypes and documentation of
computer modules. Performed product verification through functionality, noise, vibration, and thermal
tests. Assignments involved improving design, testing vibration and noise of main power supply, EMF
shielding of transformer, developing electromechanical interlocks, and overcoming power supply bus
insertion problems. Designed and built production fixtures for factory floor use.
- · Considered and resolved constraints of UL standards on manufacturing cost and development schedule. Saved
one month in UL regulatory review time loss.
- · Mocked up, tested, and machined custom connector, built mold, and cast 80 plastic assemblies saving six to eight
weeks of prototype tooling time quoted by supplier.
- · Persevered with project engineers and engineering manager overnight, three nights a row by applying my model
making skills to complete assembly and "polish" prototype computer system for functional and customer test review by
corporate. Saved potential cancellation of $80M project due to failure at a critical junction.
- · Transformed theoretical connector pin lubricant into reality, located all required chemicals, developed mixing
procedure and an application method to successfully coat 100-pin connector assembly. Reduced connector force and its
resulting breakage insertion 70%.
- · Implemented electromechanical interlocks, calculated necessary timing with tolerance. Eliminated hot switching of
modules resulting in destruction of $110 microprocessor.
- · Solved & implemented resonance transformer induced noise reduction program. Vibration and EMI cut 60% by
development and application of high silicon steel shielding. Application to and resealing of assemblies applied in house. Saved
six to eight weeks of development cycle, dramatically improved quality perception of product.
Engineering Assistant (Full time 9/1983 - 12/1983)
LINK Engineering, (Mfg. of tire test, motor winding mach.) 3840-70 Elmira, Detroit,MI Reported to
Engineering Manager.
- Completed checker changes, updated drawings to as-built, researched and assembled drawings into complete package for
shop use.
- · Resolved disputes with machine shop by adding a specific process to transfer and resolve drawing changes to
manufacturing and the machine shop. Saved 1 to 3 days process time and a lot of finger pointing in each cycle.
- · Filled in for electrical engineer when he left company, saved 3 weeks in potential lost design time.
General Machinist (1982, through summer 1983)
Zimmerman Engineering, (design and job shop), 2460 Telegraph Rd, Southfield, MI Reported
to owner/operator.
- Maintained part tolerance and changed inserts, load and unload. Watched and maintained tolerances on Swiss automatic
screw machines and CNC vertical mill. General machining, short runs, teardown and some simple set-ups. I Improved and
repaired machinery and production facilities.
- · Calculated optimum operating conditions program offsets and tooling of CNC. Increased production 10-20%.
Shop Foreman (part of 1979, summer 1980, 81)
Aqua Star Pools, Ann Arbor Trail Rd. Westland, MI reported to company owner, kept
supervisor informed of my assignments.
- Set up woodworking and metalworking machinery, repaired and modified steel processing equipment, designed and developed
new Apollo octagon pool, performed on site troubleshooting and repair, delivered and set up product.
- · Built prototype and tooling for preproduction showroom model of octagon pool from verbal description, Design
assured proper installation. Improved and completed product concept displaying feasibility.
- · Developed and built from observations of production problems new steel processing line and racks for stock
storage. Put equipment for production and stock in logical orderly sequence. Saved 20% on processing steel.
Stock Room Controller (Summer job 1979)
Flair Line, (mfg. of air and hydraulic cylinders) 130424 Flairline drive, Livonia, MI Reported to plant
supervisor.
- Assembled cylinders and tested for leaks and operation according to specifications. I Pulled and organized parts per design and
put into kits for completion by assemblers.
- · Within 2 weeks promoted to stockroom from assembler. If parts were not in stock, I placed an order for their
manufacture, or tried to locate them in the machine shop room. Saved 2 weeks time compared to simply waiting for stock.
- · Organized stock of major product into a linear sequence according to order pulled, saved 30% of the time
necessary to pull parts for assembly kits.
Lathe Hand, Piecework (summer 1978)
- H.R. Krueger Machine Tool Co., Inc. (Designer and mfg. of assembly line machining centers) 31506 Grand River Road,
Farmington, MI Reported to shop Foreman.
Selected stock and blueprint to produce 1 to 10 parts on worn out W&S #4 Turret Lathe.
- · Developed method to produce long shafting correctly for rush jobs given me, normally beyond the capability of my
(way out of tolerance) machine. Produced rush jobs as given to me. Enabled machine tools to be assembled on schedule.
ADVANCED EDUCATION:
· Lawrence Technological University, 1983, BSMET in Engineering, cum laude.
· Electronic Engineering Technology, degree two-thirds complete.
· Two year, High School 1000 hr. vocational certificate in machine trades 3.0GPA.
CONTINUING EDUCATION:
Computer skills: Rebuilt my system twice (hardware and software), CAD-CAM experience on Applicon, Gerber, and Grafteck Systems
Engineering training courses: Boothroyd-Dewherst's design for manufacture and assembly (3 day course), ANSI Geometric Tolerance
and Dimensioning (3 day course), AGMA Gear Design Tolerance and Manufacture (1 week course), Underwriters Laboratory's Selecting
& Applying Recognized Materials and Components (2 day course), General Electric Plastic's Design for Manufacture (5 day course),
CAD/CAM 3 dimensional design for CAD-KEY (3 day course)
AWARDS:
Dean's List - two years, Lawrence Institute of Technology (now called Lawrence Technological University)
· Dean's List - one year, Schoolcraft College
· Top 12% nationally on academic comprehension test
REFERENCES AVAILABLE ON REQUEST
- * Devoloped Prototyped and built for sale, Slim line Linear Actuator for robotics and natural skin
prosthetic arms. A Unit is also being applied by customer into variable force exercise machine.