Manufacturing Design & Production Strategies

Mechanically Experienced × User interaction inclined

Grew up taking things apart and haven't stopped finding better ways of rebuilding them.

My experience covers a broad scope of development levels, from initial concept generation through final manufacturing and production release. I have worked in wide array industries including Consumer electronics, Commercial Lighting, Research Experiments, and Industrial Robotics.

With this diverse set of experiences, I have an equally diverse network that I am able to call upon to add further context and insight to any project. During development, I am often able to incorporate final design and manufacturing elements early on which has helped to reduce turnaround time and production delays.

Phone

650.248.7591

Email

Ben [at] matzkeconcepts.com

Availability

Check my Calendly

Previous Projects

Previous Work

Medical, Product Development, Manufacturing Design

Myolex Mscan

Medical, Product Development, Manufacturing Design

Myolex develops core technologies that help physicians and therapists measure and assess muscle condition for a broad range of applications. Starting with that core technology, I worked with Myolex and a local design firm Lexicon to develop a fully hand-held encapsulation of their product. The device is easy and comfortable to hold and operate, and included replaceable “click-in” cartridges which facilitate reading of the muscle signals.

Medical, Product Development, Manufacturing Design

Consumer, Product Development, Manufacturing Design

Hibersense

Consumer, Product Development, Manufacturing Design

Hibersense is a Pittsburgh based startup, founded by a group of Pitt students and professor aimed at creating a true micro-climate system that can be installed in any home or office layout. I started working with the team during their early years and continue assisting them to this day. I helped Hibersense develop their sensors and vent automation packages, the core products of their system, developing their user interaction, through manufacturing design including sourcing and connection with a range of necessary suppliers for small custom electronic components and the custom injection molded enclosures.

Consumer, Product Development, Manufacturing Design

Commercial, Product Development, Manufacturing Design

Aeronics - Pawprint Oxygen

Commercial, Product Development, Manufacturing Design

Aeronics is a company founded by two Pitt graduates who developed a safe way of densely storing oxygen in an aerosol-like container. Their initial focus was on recreational and military applications, which they are still pursuing, but discovered a significant need in the veterinary space for quick, lightweight, and mobile oxygen supply. With that target market in mind, I was able to help quickly develop a plastic quick-release regulator system based on components they had already been using and producing for their other markets. I continue to work with Aeronics to this day helping to refine and streamline their production and assembly processes alongside new product development.

Commercial, Product Development, Manufacturing Design

Manufacturing Design, Product Development, Industrial

Integrated Industrial Technologies

Manufacturing Design, Product Development, Industrial

I2T is a well established Industrial Automation company with years of experience delivering exceptional custom robotic and vision solutions for a wide variety of industries. Over the years, they have broadened their reach into the mechanical realm where I have been able to support them on larger projects requiring large-scale system-development and project management. In addition to base level CAD design, I helped them establish intuitive part numbering and version control schemes for use across the board of their project portfolio.

Manufacturing Design, Product Development, Industrial

Research, Manufacturing Design, Product Development

Human Motion Technologies

Research, Manufacturing Design, Product Development

HuMoTech is a spin-out company based on research from the CMU Biomechatronics Laboratory focusing on enhanced ankle-foot prosthesis and data collection. As a recent startup, I was able to help accelerate their development cycle by focusing on the necessary supporting units, such as the development of the Caplex Control System Unit to house all of their unique computing needs and present the necessary connectors in a layout which easy to read and access as well as sourcing or designing all necessary components for the unit.

Research, Manufacturing Design, Product Development

Manufacturing Design, Product Development, Commercial

Forum Lighting

Manufacturing Design, Product Development, Commercial

What was originally a manual, time-consuming, custom design process, I was able to automate using built in tools in Solidworks covering the creation of drawings and documentation for 99% of customer orders. I was approached to design a new product line given the requirement that it would be our cheapest linear fixture. Working from the previous standardization work, I created an incredibly modular fixture supporting thousands of configurations with only a dozen unique manufactured parts.

Manufacturing Design, Product Development, Commercial

Product Development, Consumer

DuoScreen

Product Development, Consumer

One of my early ventures into the startup space revolved around mobile computing. My co-founder and I were both technical people who regularly needed to sit at a desk to use multiple screen for our work. Born out of this need, we developed Duoscreen - a mobile second screen for laptops allowing you to take your workspace with you on the go.

Product Development, Consumer

4moms

Product Development, Consumer

The Origami is the first stroller of its kind. The only stroller to include electric generators in the wheel hubs to charge batteries that can fold the stroller at the touch of a button. When I started at 4moms I was given the opportunity to organize and design the accessories for this stroller. While leading these products I had the chance to design the new Bassinet accessory and start work on a new car seat adapter.

Product Development, Consumer

Manufacturing Design, Research, Technician

ProtoInnovations

Manufacturing Design, Research, Technician

This group develops robotic platforms designed for extra planetary roving. I assisted with the upkeep and reconfiguration of these platforms through various testing scenarios, during which I also developed a design for a robotic anchoring mechanism intended for use on Mars to enable the scaling and surveying of steep terrain.

Manufacturing Design, Research, Technician

Research, Manufacturing Design

National Robotics Engineering Center

Research, Manufacturing Design

The APD vehicle was built as a successor to the Crusher robot, also built at NREC. This Vehicle is designed to run over any terrain and is driven by a teleoperations team. For this project, I was responsible for developing a variety of smaller systems and tests for the internal cooling system as well as supporting the testing team on location during desert demonstrations.

Research, Manufacturing Design