Chester F Klages (Fritz)
SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS
My experience and problem-solving skills in engineering, design and manufacturing give me a unique ability to improve your market position and profitability. If your company is in the field of instrumentation, medical devices, automation, robotics or manufacturing, I have extensive and valuable experience to offer. I am innovative, resourceful, and particularly like “hands on” projects where I can follow through with concept, design, and oversight of fabrication, assembly, test, installation and debug. If you are interested in solving your manufacturing problems or if you need AutoCAD or Pro-engineer Wildfire 3.0 expertise, please contact me for a free consultation.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Automation Engineer, MAGLEV Inc.
Was selected to participate in the high profile Maglev (Magnetically Levitated and Propelled Vehicle) transportation project for western Pennsylvania. Worked as an automation engineer and a manufacturing engineer to develop a patentable flexible Welding Fit-Up Table which would contour and restrain component parts of the 120 ton Vehicle Guideway as it was being robotically welded. This technology was also applied to the manufacture of ships for the Navy under a separate Office of Naval Research contract. Traveled the U.S. and Europe to research the most modern welding, automation, transportation, measurement and welding distortion methods. Collaborated to help design a one million square foot manufacturing facility to robotically produce 20 finished 120 Ton Guideway Beams per week:.
Engineering Consultant – A. Stucki Company
Planned highly reliable steel cage conveying and unloading systems for A. Stucki Company while acting as a manufacturing engineer. Also supervised installation of a new tempering furnace and debugged a custom built Cage Milling Machine.
Engineering Consultant – Contraves Brashear Systems
Designed, tested, and expedited manufacture of extremely high tech electro-optical tracking and range-finding systems for military weapons. Redesigned the Phalanx Tracker to pass severe military environmental tests.
Engineering Consultant – LifeCor, Inc
Participated in the redesign of the LifeCor Wearable Heart Defibrillator unit, the worlds’ smallest full-power defibrillator. Developed a new concept for locating and clamping the high power capacitors, and redesigned the plastic case for injection molding.
Project Engineer – SHANDON LIPSHAW, Inc.
Organized, relocated, trained and led a technical team to design and manufacture a Tissue Embedding Center for use by pathologists in hospitals and research laboratories. Also redesigned the drive for a Linear Stainer and instrumented and conducted lab tests to evaluate degradation of plastic materials at high temperatures for a Digital Histofloat Instrument case.
Engineering Consultant – Johnson & Johnson, Inc.
Projects included: developing ultrasonic bonding machinery and packaging equipment for producing surgical face masks for Johnson & Johnson Medical;
Manager of Development Engineering, ORBITAL SYSTEMS, Inc.
Managed a 10-man department of engineers, draftsmen and technicians engaged in the design and production of state-of-the-art automation and vision inspection systems. Handled customer liaison, automation and system integration concepts, proposal and study preparation, cost analysis, design consulting and machine system debugging. Our equipment produced products used in the paper, eyewear, bearing, plastics, heavy truck wheel and frames, steel, crystal glassware and the semiconductor industries.
Senior Engineer, WESTINGHOUSE, Manufacturing Development Lab
Designed special equipment and supervised drafting, assembly, erection and de-bugging; wrote instruction and maintenance manuals, and trained customer personnel. Typical design projects included: a mechanical system for manufacture of room air conditioners; automatic assembly system for Mogul base lamp sockets; computer controlled halogen leak detector for testing of refrigeration compressors, among others.
Chief Executive Officer, C. F. KLAGES Co.
Established a full service manufacturing plant engaged in the design and production of custom automatic machinery and machined and fabricated parts. Grew average yearly sales to $750K while serving as controller, estimator, engineer, tool designer, production manager, machinist, inspector, NC programmer, purchasing agent and salesman over a 17 year span.
Other Engineering / Consulting Projects:
- Designed electrical logic and positioning devices for a portable milling machine used to remove the head from a Nuclear Submarine Reactor Vessel for Westinghouse Nuclear
- Conducted noise reduction studies of medical breathing-assist devices for Respironics, Inc.
- Devised and detailed a patentable Polaroid sheet film holder for an independent Inventor
- Redesigned the headstock of a CNC lathe to double the spindle size for Pittsburgh Tubular Shafting
- Checked dimensions and functionality of critical sections of a steel bloom continuous casting line
- Designed and detailed an Envelope Delivery System for Automated Health Care to identify, collect and secure robot-picked drugs for hospital patients
COMMUNITY SERVICE
Technical Instructor, Butler County Vo-Tech School
Taught a non-credit course in blueprint reading for Butler County Community College and a Machinists Journeyman Apprentice course, “Mathematics for Machine Technology” for Butler County Vo-Tech Schools.
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Science, Mechanical Engineering, University of Pittsburgh
Visual Welding Inspection to ASTM Code
Uniform Bridge Welding Code Class, Lincoln Electric Co.
Leica Total Station Theodolite training, Brunson Instrument Co.
“Spatial Analyzer” and “Metric Vision” training
“The Right Way to Manage” & “Cross-Functional Team Training” by Conway Quality.
“Statistical Process Control,” Community College of Beaver County
“Problem Solving and Decision Making for Engineers,” Westinghouse Corp.
“Engineering Value Analysis,” Mine Safety Appliances
“Transistor Electronics,” Pittsburgh Technical Institute
CNC Programming for engine lathes and milling machines
Electrical Logic Design for PLC’s, steppers and servo controls
Qualified job shop machinist and welder
