Bristol, England, United Kingdom
I was able to use my past experience as a Design Engineer at Dyson to quickly get up to speed with a fast paced project. The addition of my experience in the team has accelerated the development of the project, as we juggle the acoustic and fluid dynamic requirements of the product, within the constraints of part cost and manufacturing limitations - Utilizing iterative prototype testing, and simulation to push towards challenging performance targets.
At CJL Leisure I was one of a team of two in the R&D department, which meant that I was exposed to a range of design and engineering challenges, which gave me the opportunity to learn a huge amount and really expand my field of expertise. We were a small but experienced team that, working closely with the managing director, took an engineering approach to van conversion. With this approach we designed and manufactured some of the most innovative van conversions on the market, with every aspect of the design considered from the end users perspective. CJL is one of a handful of converters that are accredited by VW and Ford, as recognition of their manufacturing and safety standards, as well as the finished products. I immediately took an interest in the Electrical side of the van installations, as I felt this was my biggest opportunity for learning, and quickly became the primary engineer in this field. Being in such a small team, I became involved in the whole lifecycle of the electrical system. On promotion to Senior Systems Engineer, I had full responsibility for design and implementation of all electrical, heating and plumbing systems within the converted vans, including sign off of all 12v and 240v circuitry on each completed van, in line with BS 7671, in order to achieve VW and NCC approval. I was able to build on my basic knowledge of Adobe Illustrator, and become quite proficient in producing designs for vinyl van wraps, as well as other smaller graphic design tasks as and when needed. I also learnt some valuable lessons in design for print and colour matching.
At CJL I was tasked with some interesting design challenges, using a range of manufacturing methods. These were typically designed in 3D CAD using Solidworks 2018, drawn up to BS8888. A highlight of this role was the task of Integrate a Marzocco Espresso machine and coffee grinder into an existing van layout powered by leisure batteries, for use off-grid. The coffee machine needed to fit within the kitchen unit when not in use, then rise up out out of the worktop at the press of a button, when needed. This was achieved using electro-mechanical actuators. In addition I was tasked with designing a van wrap graphic, based on the team riding kit, that promotes the Performance Chef brand and sponsors. This was all achieved within an extremely tight deadline, which meant that essentially everything had to be right first time. See video below for finished product: