Ryan Schimmel

Schimmel Engineering — Nashville, TN

• Deliver full-stack mechanical design and engineering consulting for clients across industrial, entertainment, automotive, and manufacturing sectors, with primary tooling in SolidWorks CAD/FEA and high-resolution 3D laser scan data.
• Contract and manage domestic and overseas production across CNC billet machining, sheet metal fabrication, weldment assemblies, DMLS, and MJF additive manufacturing — from single prototype to production run.
• Owner-operator of a Creaform HandyScan Black Elite blue-light 3D scanner (±0.0009 in. accuracy, 1.8M pts/sec) and VXModel reverse engineering software — enabling parametric CAD model generation from physical parts for reverse engineering, QC inspection, and worn-part reconstruction.
• Generate 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

• Mechanical lead on multi-million dollar bespoke industrial robots from concept to installation; produced GD&T-compliant 2D prints for machined parts, weldments, and assemblies; performed FE weld analysis for fatigue, ultimate, seismic, and overhead load cases.
• Lead engineer on a 17-axis BLDC servo robot at 34,000 lbs gross weight — largest single project in company history; managed cross-disciplinary coordination across animation, electrical, mechanical, and controls teams.
• Oversaw BLDC actuator commissioning and motion tuning (linear lead screw and strain wave rotary) with piezo load cell feedback in Beckhoff/TwinCAT IDE; issued final motion profile approvals across the full machine fleet.
• Built and maintained large-scale SolidWorks assemblies (5,000+ parts) in a DBWorks PDM environment; produced FEA mixed mesh studies, 3D sketching, surface modeling, weldment cut lists, and full manufacturing drawing packages.
• Managed vendor capacity and client requirements end-to-end: concept → spec → source → commission → install → troubleshoot → spares lifecycle.

EMIT Inc.

• Modeled sheet metal, machined, and off-the-shelf components in complex material handling assemblies using Autodesk Inventor 2018; drove projects from concept through installation and commissioning.
• Site superintendent supporting millwrights and electricians on installation; modified AutoCAD facility layouts for rework, repair, and new build-outs.
• Controls integration experience: COGNEX vision systems, EtherCAT, Allen Bradley RSLogix 5000, and RS232 device communication.

Nissan North America

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

Clean Air Engineering

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