Mike Harrison

Mike Harrison has 26 years of experience in the mechanical design of robotics and automated machine tools. He has been the mechanical engineering department manager at Hamblen Gage Corporation in Indianapolis for the past 13 years where he currently supervises a group of engineers and designers in the development of custom automated assembly, testing and gaging equipment for the automotive, aerospace and heavy equipment industries. Typical projects include the design of automated dynamic test machines for 4WD transfer cases, leak test equipment, disc brake assembly lines, multi-spindle bolt driving machines, inline post process gages and robotic material handling and assembly cells.

Prior to coming to Hamblen Gage, he was the chief mechanical engineer at Integrated Motion Systems Incorporated in Carmel, Indiana where he worked with welding, controls and software engineers to develop a miniature robotic pipe welding system capable of automatically welding high pressure steam lines up to 40" diameter with 6" wall thickness for power plant boiler maintenance and repair.

He worked as a design engineer at CYBOTECH Corporation in Indianapolis between the years of 1981-1986 where he spent the last three years as the mechanical engineering department supervisor. During that time, he worked on the development and implementation of a wide variety of new robots and robotic systems for welding, advanced manufacturing and non-destructive testing. Major accomplishments included leading the mechanical engineering department in the "ground up" design of what was the world's largest horizontal arm robot. Mounted to a custom designed AGV, this huge robot had 5 meters of horizontal reach and 5 meters of vertical travel. It was delivered to the Lockheed Corporation and used for automatically painting aircraft.

Prior to starting his engineering career, he graduated from the Purdue school of mechanical design technology at IUPUI and worked for 3 years as owner and operator of his own excavating company.