Nashville, TN · Licensed Professional Engineer · Selectively Available
Ryan Schimmel, PE
Principal Mechanical Engineer · Robotics, Simulation & Advanced Manufacturing · University of Tennessee, B.S. Mechanical Engineering
Mechanical engineer with 10+ years directing complex hardware programs across industrial robotics, electromechanical systems, simulation-driven structural design, and advanced manufacturing. Hands-on depth in motion control, FEA, additive manufacturing, CAD/CAM/CAE, and instrumentation — with a consistent record as single point of technical accountability on programs from concept through production release.
Professional Summary
Licensed Professional Engineer with a decade of experience as the technical lead on programs that don't fit a standard job description. The through-line: complex electromechanical systems, distributed teams, and hardware that has to work in the field — not just pass a design review. Background spans industrial robotics, servo motion control, simulation-driven structural design, advanced manufacturing, automotive process engineering, and precision instrumentation at energy and aerospace-adjacent facilities.
Ran a 17-axis BLDC robotic program at 34,000 lbs as the sole mechanical lead — concept, FEA, motion commissioning, GD&T drawings, vendor management, installation, and multi-year field support. Separately built and operated an independent engineering firm handling the full chain: scan, model, analyze, manufacture, inspect, document. SolidWorks-primary with deep simulation (FEA, motion), PDM, and large assembly experience across 5,000+ part programs.
Selectively available for senior, principal, and program leadership roles in robotics, simulation, advanced manufacturing, aerospace, or defense — where technically complex programs need someone who has owned them end to end before.
Work Experience
Schimmel Engineering LLC · Nashville, TN
Built and operates an independent engineering firm handling the complete technical chain — from reverse engineering and structural analysis through manufacturing drawings, vendor coordination, first article inspection, and delivery. Manages a distributed team of contract engineers and CAD technicians across concurrent programs with no loss of delivery quality or schedule.
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. Coordinates domestic and overseas CNC billet machining, DMLS/MJF/SLS/FDM additive manufacturing, and polyurethane cold casting — additive applied to end-use production parts, not prototypes.
Representative programs: CVT contra spring reverse engineering — scan to production drawings to overseas manufacture in 45 days with no source documentation; locomotive firebox component restoration for a nationally significant steam asset with sand casting and 1% shrinkage compensation. Selected case studies →
Animax Designs · Nashville, TN
Single point of mechanical accountability on a 17-axis BLDC servo-actuated robotic figure at 34,000 lbs gross weight — the largest program in company history, spanning four years from concept through multi-city touring deployment. Coordinated fabrication vendors and in-house assembly teams, led executive design reviews, and owned fielded system performance including teardown, reinstallation, and field repair across multiple touring shows simultaneously.
Actuator package included Curtis Wright Exlar FTX/GS linear actuators, harmonic drive strain wave gearboxes, Parker servo drives, and SMC pneumatic counterbalance air springs. Sized all axes in SolidWorks Motion Analysis against animation profiles from Maya riggers; sized air springs to offload static gravity loads so servo duty cycle was available for dynamic motion only. Commissioned all axes via Beckhoff TwinCAT IDE with piezo load cell compliance feedback and per-function PID tuning. Shows triggered on PLC LAN with SMPTE timecode.
Performed mixed-mesh FEA covering weld fatigue, ultimate failure, seismic, and overhead safety load cases across the full product line. Authored GD&T-compliant manufacturing drawings for machined parts, weldments, and assemblies. Maintained 5,000+ part SolidWorks assemblies in DBWorks PDM with strict revision control; enforced weight budgets and managed concept-through-spares lifecycle.
Transitioned into show programming mid-program — tuning motion profiles and managing acceleration limits in deployment, observing directly how design decisions propagate to field behavior over a multi-year run. Program detail →
EMIT Inc. · Tennessee
Concept-to-installation design of industrial material handling equipment in Autodesk Inventor. Served as site superintendent directing millwright and electrician crews through installation, commissioning, and facility modifications.
Controls integration across COGNEX machine vision, EtherCAT, Allen Bradley RSLogix 5000, and RS-232 devices.
Nissan North America · Smyrna, TN
Achieved a 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 · Coal, Combined Cycle, Natural Gas & Nuclear Facilities
Calibrated pressure transmitters, RTDs, power meters, Agilent DAQ systems, flow pitots, and thermocouple readers at coal, combined cycle, natural gas, and nuclear facilities. Wrote Fluke MET/CAL automation scripts for certificate generation; performed circuit-level analog instrumentation repair.
Education & Credentials
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Licensed Professional Engineer — Machine Design · State of Tennessee