GCM
DFM/DFA
Cut a 1-hour cycle to 10 minutes on the floor.
The Problem
Edge-case medical robot manufacturing was bottlenecked by a 1-hour cycle on a critical machining operation, and a multi-process robotic welding cell needed GD&T held to within a thousandth of an inch without a fixture that could survive heat, repeatability cycles, and operator handling.
The Approach
Designed a portable milling unit built around a custom miter bearing system, with DLC/PVD coatings for wear life, a magnetic lifting mechanism for operator ergonomics, and a modular architecture that travels to the work. In parallel, designed a high-precision robotic welding fixture for multi-process integration — modular construction validated against FEA simulations and tuned to hold tolerance through thermal cycling.
The Outcome
The portable milling unit reduced cycle time from 1 hour to 10 minutes — a 6× speedup on the bottleneck step. The welding fixture holds GD&T within 0.001 inches across multi-process welds, locking in repeatability for the cell that uses it daily.