Mechanical Engineer Expert Witness

Expert Witness No.957

California

Education

BS Mechanical Engineering, 1969, Cornell University
MS Mechanical Engineering, 1970, Stanford University
Pi Tau Sigma Mechanical Engineering Honorary Society

Registration

Professional Mechanical Engineer, California (License No. Available Upon Request)

Patents

Filed in 1994 (More information available upon request)

Areas of Expertise

Mechanical and Hydraulic Design
Design, Fabrication, Operation, and Safety of: Towtrucks, Car carriers, Construction equipment, Automotive lifts, Steel Fabrication

Computer Capabilities

Solid Works, Autocad, COSMOS Works FEA for stress analysis, MS Office, MS Excel

Teaching Experience

Guest lecturer on Hydraulics in Mechanical Design at California Polytechnic Institute, Pomona CA

Industrial Experience

Legal Case Consulting

(Professional engineer providing expert analysis and testimony.)

Auto Lift Accident.  Analysis of the design and installation of an inground auto lift which fell and severely injured a mechanic attempting to free the mechanical lock mechanism on the lift.

Scissor Lift Accident.  Inspection of a the condition of a manned scissor lift which toppled and killed a worker operating the lift at a construction site.

Car Hauler Death.  Analysis of the death of the operator of an enclosed tractor-trailer car hauler.  The accident occurred when the loading ramp fell to the ground.  Expert 957 calculated the stresses on the lifting system due to hydraulic pressure and gravity and deduced from these calculations the probable cause of the accident.

Hydraulic Elevator Performance.  Analysis involving a modernization project for six hydraulic elevators in an eleven story condominium building.  Expert 957 performed a buckling analysis for the hydraulic cylinder rods supporting the elevators, verified the hydraulic pressure requirements due to the changes to the system, and analyzed the change in the tendency of the system to oscillate at the top of the cylinder stroke due to the compressibility of the hydraulic fluid.   

Towbar Failure.  Analysis of the failure of a towbar used to tow a small passenger vehicle behind a motor home.  Failure of the towbar caused decoupling of the towed vehicle and the death of the driver of an oncoming vehicle.

Trash Truck Accident.  This accident occurred when a repairman tilted the bed of a packer type trash truck to repair a hydraulic line and was killed when the bed fell on him.  Expert 957 analyzed the mechanical and hydraulic mechanisms for locking the bed in the tilt position. 

Tow Truck Injury.  Analysis of trajectory and expert testimony in a case involving a customer of a towing company who was injured when a mechanism on the towtruck failed.  Expert 957 analyzed the trajectory of a part thrown from the towtruck and provided testimony regarding towtruck design, operation, and safety for deposition and for the subsequent trial.  Expert 957 was employed by the attorney for the plaintiff (the injured party), who won the case.

Auto Lift Collapse.  This accident occurred when an employee of an auto dealership was crushed by an air-over-hydraulic inground auto lift.  Expert 957 provided consultation in determining the circumstances which caused the lift to fall. 

Car Carrier Failure.  Evaluation of installation work done by a towtruck distributor which resulted in vehicle frame failure.

Auto Lift Collapse.  Analysis of automotive lift design which resulted in damage to a vehicle being repaired and which threatened the safety of employees

Trash Truck System Overheating.  Analysis of overheating problems resulting from the poor design of trash compactor truck bodies.  The analysis included the development of a finite-difference thermal model of the compactor truck which accurately predicted the hydraulic fluid temperature variation through a daily cycle due to hydraulic heating and meteorological and solar effects. 

Tow Truck Failure.  Expert testimony for a pretrial hearing involving the injury sustained by a towtruck operator when part of the towtruck lifting mechanism failed.

Auto Lift Accident.  Analysis of an accident involving an inground auto lift in a repair shop.  The accident resulted in injury to the mechanic when forklifts were used to remove a vehicle stuck on the lift.

A Private Engineering Company

(Owner of consulting firm providing engineering design and analysis services to industry.) 

Scooter Design.  Engineering design for a child’s self-propelled scooter.  Expert 957 designed the scooter using Solid Works to model the prototype and to produce fabrication drawings.

Debris Clamshell.   Expert 957 designed a hydraulic clamshell system for use on a telescopic handler to remove debris from the bottom of a liquid sulfur pit at an oil refinery.  The clamshell was mounted on a 16 foot long extension so that it could reach from the boomhead of the handler to the deepest part of the pit.  The clamshell system was designed with a heating system to prevent cooling and deposition of solid sulfur on the surface.  All parts were designed to resist the chemical and thermal effects of  300F liquid sulfur.

Load Spreaders (Several).  Expert 957 designed lifting devices to be used by crane operators for loading heavy cargo (up to 60,000 lb) onto cargo ships at LA harbor.  All devices were designed in conformance with ANSI Standard No. 30.20 for lifting devices.

Hydraulic Clamshell.   Expert 957 designed a 5/8 cubic yard hydraulic clamshell for moving fill dirt at a construction site by means of a mobile crane.

A Private Corporation

(Co-owner of company which manufactured construction equipment.  Expert 957 personally designed and supervised fabrication of all products.)

Wallbreaker.  An attachment for excavator type construction equipment which is used to remove vertical walls of buildings while minimizing the amount of debris falling to the outside of the wall.  It is especially useful for tearing down buildings which are in close proximity to other structures.

Clamp Buckets.  Buckets for wheel loaders for handling straw, trees, and greenwaste.  Clamps were hydraulically actuated and used for retaining materials in bucket while loading trailers.

Rock Tongs. 20,000-pound cable-actuated tongs for allowing cranes to move rocks weighing up to 45 tons for harbor construction.

Scrap Grapples. Hydraulically actuated two jaw grapples for moving metallic and nonmetallic scrap with excavators.

Swivel Buckets. Buckets for cleaning agricultural ditches with integral hydraulic mechanisms for varying the angle the bucket makes with the ground,

Excavator and Loader Buckets.  Various straight and V shaped buckets for excavators and wheel loaders.

Pro-West Industries, Inc.

(Co-owner of company manufacturing towtrucks, car carriers, and accessory towing equipment.  Expert 957 personally designed, marketed, and supervised fabrication and installation of all products developed by Pro-West.)

Selfloading Crossarm.  This is a device which allows a towtruck operator to attach and lift a vehicle hydraulically from a remote position and is one of the few such devices successfully in use. 

Ground Level Loader.  This is a car carrier which has a bed that lowers to a completely horizontal position on  the ground and is used for loading and carrying vehicles with extremely low ground clearances.

Drop Pivot Car Carrier. This is a car carrier that has a lowered bed pivot geometry and horizontally mounted tilt cylinders.  These design features allow for easier installation of the bed system onto the truck and for a lower effective load angle.

Motorcycle Carrier Wheel Lifts.  This device allows the towtruck operator to easily carry motorcycles on any common brand of wheel lift towtruck.  It is easily stored and easily deployed and allows the motorcycle to be securely carried in a manner consistent with the requirements for California Highway Patrol contract towing companies.

Benwil Lifts, Inc

(Chief engineer for company manufacturing automobile lifts.  Responsibilities and special projects are listed.)

CAD System Implementation.   Expert 957 implemented the use of Solid Works solid modeling software for design and configuration control.

Lift Certification.  Expert 957 pretested and coordinated the third-party testing of Benwil two post above ground lifts for certification by ALI, the auto lift trade organization, according to the ANSI/ALI ALCTV 1998, the CSA 68, and UL standards for design and operation of automotive lifts. 

Inground Lift Retrofit.  Expert 957 diagnosed a chronic chattering problem with inground lifts, redesigned the lifts to correct for the problem, and designed retrofit kits for correcting lifts in the field.

Lift Redesign.  Expert 957 was responsible for design improvements for the Benwil product line.  All changes were made with Solid Works solid modeling software.  Stress analysis was carried out using both manual methods and COSMOS Works FEA software.

TRW  Inc

(Engineer and engineering manager at TRW Inc.)

Mirror Fusion Manufacturing.  Expert 957 was responsible for the $1.5 Million mechanical fabrication package for Mirror Fusion Technology Facility-B Project, in which five ten-foot diameter vacuum chambers were built for conditioning neutral particle beams prior to entry into a nuclear plasma.

Isotope Separation.  Expert 957 was responsible for fabrication of a vacuum chamber and peripheral hardware for a Special Isotope Separation unit for Los Alamos National Lab.

Superconducting Electron Beam.  Expert 957 was responsible for mechanical fabrication for the CEBAF project which involves a superconducting chamber for electron beam acceleration.  This project required dieforming, machining, electron beam welding, and acid etching of niobium.

Offshore Platform.  Expert 957 was Project Manager for a $1.4 Million study to determine the structural integrity and effects of environmental loads on a drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico.  Under Expert 957's direction, subcontractors were used for NASTRAN analysis of the platform structure and for onsite structural and environmental inspection and sampling both above and below the water line.  TRW personnel under Expert 957's supervision analyzed test and inspection data to recommend use of the platform as a site for hazardous waste incineration.