Franco Pezza

Portfolio“Evolving technologies are continuously

changing the industry. For those who adapt,

the payoff is greater flexibility, improved

reliability, faster changeover, less downtime,

and much more ...”

(Inauguration of the Technical Industrial Institute “Montani”, 1854, Fermo, AP, Italy)

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Index Table

Mission Statement 3

My Viewpoint 4 regarding Blueprints regarding Engineering regarding Technologies regarding Manuals regarding Presentations

Projects 5 Horizontal Indexer Adhesive Dispenser Paper Bag Machine Cartesian Robot High-security Lock-set Constant Tension De-coiler Air over Oil Press Other Projects and Patents

Contact Info 10

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Mission Statement

Make a difference

Encourage innovation

Continue to learn and improve

Build trust and respect

Be ethical and responsible

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My Viewpoint

According to the mission statement, my viewpoint regarding some of the important

steps in engineering and design are:

regarding Blueprints:

Drawings of details, assemblies, manuals and exploded views using 3-D software such as Inventor, Solidworks and others, can reduce time and improve quality of the final product.

regarding Engineering:

Ergonomic analysis, 3-D animation for debugging and presentations, FEA analysis and interference checking are some features adopted during all the phases of the design and development.

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regarding Technologies:

State of the art technologies, such as digital servo motion control, network field bus and integrated controls, can enable several benefits, such as reduced machine delivery time, faster installation time, faster changeover, less downtime, increased reliability, greater productivity, greater flexibility, increased quality, and high performance

data acquisition and feedback. Servo motion control eliminates mechanical drive shafts, linkages, pulleys, chains and gears, reducing design, assembly and maintenance time.

regarding Manuals

A manual is considered an integrant part of a machine. Installation, set-up, spare parts catalog, maintenance, trouble-shooting and other important information cannot be neglected in a total quality context.

regarding Presentations:

The presentations done using 3-D rendering, applying features such as material finishing, transparency, lighting and animations, create great opportunities to see, in the early stage of the projects, the final products, creating confidence in the results. The animation can simulate the real behavior of the prototypes, allowing the customers and the manufacturers to take advantage of drastic reduced rework in

the final testing stages, and therefore to improve efficiency and quality.

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Projects

Some examples of the projects in which I have been involved are the following:

Horizontal Indexer Adhesive Dispenser

This machine dispenses adhesive on a coreless media filter cartridge. A four-station horizontal indexer drum, after the semi-automatic loading station, presents the filter into the dispensing station. While the filter rotates, the adhesive is dispensed, and from the main panel it is possible to control both the speed of rotation of the filter and the speed of translation of the adhesive head. The third station is the U.V. station. The filter is exposed, while rotating with another adjustable speed motor, to an ultra violet light source, which cures the adhesive in few seconds, A high volume blower keeps the temperature of the station under control, while a fully enclosed chamber provides protection for the operators

against direct UV light radiations. To achieve that protection, while ensuring a good air flow, two enclosed pre-chambers were created before and after the UV station, and a v-shaped grid was used for the air-inlet grid.

Paper Bag Machine

Working on this prototype to industrialize the machine and improve it, was a great experience. The main industrialization process was to bring the cost of the machine from $600,000 to $400,000. That goal was reached the within one year thanks mainly to a sale of 12 machines,

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which reduced the overhead cost and the costs of manufacturing parts. Other important factor that helped to reach the goal was the fact that we were efficiently improving the machine using feed backing and suggestions from our customers. The greatest challenge was from our French customer; considering that the operator, to change the length of the bag, had to change a gear in the traction rolls, the customer asked us to modify the

machine such that each gear for the bag length had a number of teeth equal to the length in centimeters of the bag produced. For example, a 45 teeth gear had to produce a 45 cm long bag, and a 54 teeth gear a 54 cm bag, and so on. Keeping in mind that one cycle of the machine was one complete revolution of the gear, the great challenge was the fact that each tooth of “modulo” 3 (“modulo” is the European equivalent of pitch)

develop a length of 3π. Therefore, 3π is less than 1 cm, and the difference is 0.058 cm. In fact, a 45 teeth, modulo 3 gear will produce a (45 x 3π) = 42.39 cm length bag and not a 45 cm one. In addition, the error is proportional to the number of teeth of the gear. For

example, a 90 teeth gear will produce an error double the error of a 45 teeth gear.The problem was solved using, between the gear and the traction rolls, the coaxial phasing unit in continuous correction mode. The idea was to input the pashing unit with the rpm from the gear, to add the speed necessary through the phasing shaft, and then to obtain an output rpm from the phasing unit such that the desired bag length was obtained.

Cartesian Robot

The Wittmann Robots Company makes high-speed Cartesian robots for the injection mold industry. The integration of the robots with the injection mold presses, and the design and development of the end-of-arm tools were the main responsibilities. The use of pneumatic grippers, the use of quick-change devices, the use of crash-protection devices were used, therefore engineered and developed keeping in mind the final critical weight of the end-of-arm. The robots also were often implemented with a forth or a fifth axis for further manipulations and orientations. Other special operations were also requested by the customer, such as the cut of

the spur on the molded part, some simple machining on the parts, or some assembly onto other components. All these operations were usually done using the robot itself and his flexibility as the fixture for the part to manufacture.

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High-Security Lock-Set

The participation into the design, the development and the dimensioning of a high security lock sets was the main task in which my rational and analytical skills were tested. The target for this product was to reach that niche in the market where high-security, resistance to tampering, resistance to drilling and high degree of mastering were required, for a not electronic lock set system. The research and development of a 15 pins lock set, allowed the usage of a master key with billions of combinations. It was the first in its category that allowed such a mastering potential

in a mechanical lock set. Another achievement was to explain and adopt for the first time in the company the so-called mushroom head pin in a lock set cylinder. This type of pin allowed improving drastically the resistance to tampering.

Constant Tension De-coiler

One of the most critical parts of the belt is the tension cord, because it is responsible for the endurance and the power transmitted which the belt can support. Even a small variance in the tension between the cords, will cause that the most tensioned cord to be overloaded supporting all the traction

force of the belt, with the consequence of a premature failure of the cord. To ensure that all the tension cords in the belt are equally contributing in the power transmission, they have to be perfectly wrapped around at the same constant tension over the still soft rubber

belt. This machine was designed to wrap the tension cord around, over a pre-vulcanized rubber belt core, and to achieve that goal, all the components which were involved in handling and the cord and controlling the tension, such as the spool holder, the traction rollers, the idle rollers and the bearings, had to be designed for low inertia, low weight, low

friction and high speed characteristics. A load cell was also applied to one of the idle roller to detect the actual tension, the tension variance, and to control its value. In fact, the feedback from the load cell was used to control the traction rollers speed and therefore the final tension of the cord on the rubber belt.

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Air over Oil Press

This 2 tons press was designed and released into production in two weeks. The pneumatic pick-n-place unit loaded the two pre-assembled parts on a heavy duty dove-tail pneumatic slide, which presented the parts under the press station. At that point, the air over oil cylinder was activated, and the parts assembled together. The same pick-n-place was then responsible for unloading the final product from the dove-tail slide into a chute. The pick-n-place, the die, the extractor, the four posts press, the steel frame and the safety guarding were all designed, detailed and released for production (assembly drawings included) in a record time.

Other Projects and Patents

My experience also includes other projects and patents in which I was involved as a designer:

Fully automatic packaging machine for plastic bottles industry; Dial plate indexing machines (4-6-8-12 stations) for assembling, inspection and

testing; High speed pick-n-place robotic arm for the molding industry; Assembly line for the washer machine welded frame; Work cell unit for pressure testing of oleo-dynamic flexible hoses; Several tooling and precision gages for automotive industries; Material handling equipments, feeders and orientation devices; Case Packaging machines (continuous and index motions), drop packers and wrap

around machines. Patent # US 8,545,349 Issued: Oct.1, 2013; Title: Broadhead arrowhead having

deployable blades.

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Contact Info

Franco Pezza571 Pilgrim’s HarborWallingford, CT, 06492

Tel. (203) 214 2961

e-mail: fpezza@gmail.com

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