Scope
Battery-powered tools offer major usability advantages over power tool technology, but increased system weight remains a key limitation due to integrated motors, geartrains, and batteries.
On this project, I helped lead the development of a next-generation professional power tool with a target to reduce overall weight by 25% while maintaining or exceeding existing performance.
As a Mechanical Design Engineer within Milwaukee Tool's New Product Development Group, I owned product execution from concept through mass production—working cross-functionally with Electrical, Motor, Reliability, Manufacturing, and Product Marketing teams to deliver a solution aligned with real-world jobsite demands.
Design/Prototyping
Developed full-system 3D CAD in Siemens NX (managed in Teamcenter), enabling rapid iteration across multiple design concepts.Leveraged polymer and metal additive prototyping to validate form, function, and assembly early, reducing downstream design risk.
Conducted field visits at professional job sites to capture real-world usage patterns and edge cases, directly informing CTQs and validation strategy.
Analysis
Led structural and dynamic FEA using ANSYS Static Structural and LS-DYNA simulations to validate core mechanism durability and impact performance.
Developed and executed a drop simulation strategy that eliminated all drop-test failures between first and second prototype builds, significantly reducing physical iteration cycles.
Completed 250+ tolerance stack analyses (Excel, Enventive) to ensure robust performance across manufacturing variation.
Manufacturing
Partnered with global suppliers to implement DFM improvements across injection molding, powder metal, MIM, investment casting, stampings, and machined components.
Produced GD&T-compliant drawings and worked directly with suppliers to refine inspection strategies, ensuring production capability without compromising design intent.
Testing/Root Cause Analysis
Developed accelerated life testing methodologies to reduce validation time while maintaining reliability targets. Built Python-based tools to correlate accelerated and real-world life data.
Used high-speed video analysis to diagnose dynamic failure modes not visible through conventional methods.
Led structured failure investigations and implemented DOE-based test procedures to improve comparability across design variants.
Summary
This experience provided full lifecycle ownership of professional-grade hardware development - integrating design, simulation, manufacturing, and validation into a cohesive execution strategy focused on performance, manufacturability, and customer impact.