Ryan Schimmel

Schimmel Engineering — Nashville, TN

• Leads a distributed technical team of contract RE technicians, CAD modelers, and assembly personnel — writing scoped work packages, directing revision cycles, reviewing deliverables for acceptance, and managing a concurrent pipeline of active projects with strict schedule and quality standards.
• Precision reverse engineering using Creaform HandyScan Black Elite (±0.0009 in., 1.8M pts/sec) for components and Creaform Max Elite for large structures up to 50 ft.; full point cloud processing, surface reconstruction, and toleranced 2D drawing release from physical hardware with no OEM documentation.
• Owns full product development pipeline from concept to first articles within 6 weeks; coordinates domestic and overseas CNC billet machining, FDM/SLS/MJF additive, and polyurethane cold casting — approximately 1,000 pieces/year delivered to a domestic distributor.
• Executes mixed-mesh FEA (SolidWorks Simulation) for structural loads, fatigue, and failure validation; designs SMD and DIP PCBs with I²C and SPI components for instrumentation and embedded control integration.
• Generates complete documentation packages: clean-sheet concept through manufacturing drawings, GD&T callouts, vendor BOM, sourcing, assembly documentation, and customer support — reducing client time-to-production.

Animax Designs

• Single point of technical accountability on a 17-axis BLDC servo-actuated program at 34,000 lbs gross weight — the largest single program in company history; coordinated in-house assembly teams and fabrication vendors, led executive design reviews, managed client deliverables, and sustained fielded system performance from concept through installation.
• Sized and commissioned all servo axes (linear lead screw and rotary strain wave BLDC) via SolidWorks Motion Studies and Beckhoff TwinCAT IDE with piezo load cell feedback; issued final motion profile approvals across the full machine fleet.
• Performed mixed-mesh FEA covering weld fatigue, ultimate failure, seismic, and overhead safety load cases; authored GD&T-compliant manufacturing drawings for machined parts, weldments, and assemblies across the full product line.
• Maintained 5,000+ part SolidWorks assemblies in a DBWorks PDM environment with strict revision control; enforced weight budgets, coordinated DFM with vendors, and managed concept-through-production lifecycle including spare parts planning.
• Managed vendor capacity and cross-disciplinary coordination across animation, electrical, mechanical, and controls teams — concept → spec → source → commission → install → troubleshoot → spares lifecycle.

EMIT Inc.

• Concept-to-installation design of material handling equipment in Autodesk Inventor; served as site superintendent directing millwright and electrician crews on installation, commissioning, and facility modifications.
• Controls integration across COGNEX machine vision, EtherCAT, Allen Bradley RSLogix 5000, and RS-232 devices; modified AutoCAD facility layouts for rework, repair, and new build-outs.

Nissan North America

• Achieved 15-second-per-head assembly line cycle time reduction and eliminated a persistent quality defect through vendor facility controls improvement; led ultrasonic argon shielding gas leak detection program and Minomi rack redesign supporting Kaizen and lean manufacturing initiatives.

Clean Air Engineering

• Calibrated pressure transmitters, RTDs, power meters, Agilent DAQ systems, flow pitots, and thermocouple readers; wrote Fluke MET/CAL automation scripts for certificate generation; performed circuit-level analog instrumentation repair at coal, combined cycle, natural gas, and nuclear facilities.