1. Resume of Mr. Malcolm E. Taylor – Senior Staff Engineer
Mr. Taylor is an accomplished design engineer with over 40 years of experience in the
development of automated, high speed machinery, electromechanical devices, and high
precision instrument design and high volume molded product design. Mr. Taylor has
designed equipment both in England and the United States for use in the manufacture,
assembly, and packaging of commercial products under high speed conditions. He has
been responsible for the management, specification, acquisition, installation, and
debugging of totally automated sequential operations for production machinery.
Mr. Taylor has been involved in the development of safety and arming mechanisms
for the military and spent many years in razor product development and production
automation. He holds patents for various packaging systems, medical products and food
processes. His areas of expertise include: Mechanical design; Materials (metallurgy,
polymers, adhesives, etc.); Material forming technology (molding, casting, extrusion,
laminating, stamping, etc.); Fluid metering; Materials joining, CO60, electron beam and
ethylene oxide sterilization technology; Manufacturing facility integration (start-up,
semiautomatic, high speed assembly/packaging, and incoming inspection through
automatic warehousing and just-in-time operation).
At Foster-Miller for 28 years, Mr. Taylor's expertise in production systems and
product development lies in the automatic assembly or processing of multiple parts,
packaging of products, and design/build of medical devices - disposable and reusable.
He is responsible for the design and development of production equipment and product
development in the following Foster-Miller programs:
• Novel blood bag design in which blood collection, freeze drying, and storage can
be accomplished in one bag, through the use of a ported diffusion membrane
design. The membrane can be discarded after freeze drying and port sealing.
• Air transportable equipment to facilitate pilot production of NaOH, LiOH and
KOH caustics and H2O2 mixing/storage for use on Air Force COIL lasers. Facility
is capable of formulations blended to an accuracy of 0.5 percent with 1600 gal
storage. Crystalline caustics are stored and mixed with water on demand.
• A needle-less BChE bio-scavenger injector is being developed and is being
designed for in-field use. The driving force is from compressed argon, dispensing
drug from four cylinders, simultaneously, in quantities of 1/2 cc per cylinder.
Foster-Miller has reduced the liquid quantity from 12 cc to 2 cc by reformulation
and increased viscosity.
• A nano-spinning (or electro-spinning) facility has been developed at Foster-
Miller, capable of producing nanometer diameter polymer fibers from solution
and forming them into thin mats or membranes. The membranes offer very high
surface area for many types of wet and dry filtration applications. We have
2. demonstrated multi-spinneret capability and feasibility for forming wide web
widths at reasonable throughput rates.
• Part of team developing a semi-disposable colonoscope, incorporating molded or
stamped components and multiple low friction guide wires.
• Developed an implantable compliance chamber for use with a fully implanted
artificial heart. The flexing membrane and body is largely made up of liquid
crystal polymer.
• Investigated problems inherent with the foil packaging of inhalable dry drug
loaded powders and the accurate dispensing thereof, using compressed air or
patient inhalation. Correct handling of tribo-static electric and moisture issues are
critical to reliable operation.
• Disposable transdermal drug delivery patch development using hydrogels and
utilizing both passive and electro-osmotic/phoretic driver methodology, plus a full
complement of production machinery for high volume requirements.
• Automatic machinery development for razor blade strip handling, clean break and
magazine stacking - 1200 ppm.
• Laboratory nano-fiber electro-spinning and concept development of various
pieces of high volume production equipment.
• Multilayer medical diagnostic strip (sensor) development for high speed/high
volume requirement, using micro and nano fluids dispensing methodologies.
Both laser and automatic press die cutting.
• Barrier packaging systems development for the military.
• Implantable, live insulin product development, including unique
containment/membrane technology.
• Dental drug delivery product casting, die cutting, separation and packaging
system.
• High speed, retort food processing and packaging with optimum heat exposure.
• Automatic packaging equipment design and development for thermoplastic,
pressure sensitive adhesive product. Packaging consisted of thermoformed and
impulse welded modified resorbable polyethylene.
• Cylindrical dry powder medication inhalation device for asthmatics, including
disposable foil blister packaging system for the powder medication. This patented
device is hand held and contains 30 doses of sequentially accessible drug.
3. • Automatic surgical needle and suture packaging equipment, including robotics
handling.
• Braided catheter development to reduce the number of process steps. Also some
work to reduce manufacturing costs of guide wire controlled urinary catheters.
• High speed plastic bag manufacturing, stacking, folding and cartoning. Six lanes,
speeds to 1000/min per lane.
• Fish log distributor automation (80 3-lb logs/min). The design involves conveyor
handling from saws, distribution from two-lane input to nine-lane output, and a
programmable controller timed gate system.
• Two versions of an insulin dispenser product design (high volume). These
products are industry "firsts" and patented. Designed for active diabetics, the
products are reusable and include injection molded components.
• Binary bottle product design (high volume). Design goals of this patented
product include dual hostile liquids separation, mixing upon opening, novel
sealing, and injection and blow molded components.
• High speed custom labeler (1000 labels/min). Product features include:
continuous and indexed motion, bulk infeed of product, magazine loading at
discharge, cam controlled, microprocessor controlled vacuum, sensors and
thermal controls, roll fed "heat seal" labels, wax product.
• Developed an automatic system for coating P.E.T. bottles with plasma deposited
glass.
Mr. Taylor's other accomplishments at Foster-Miller include the following:
• Glass Sample QC Machine - Foster-Miller developed a 36 station indexing table
with samples on a 30 in. pitch diameter to inspect automatically QC lens samples
with a colorimeter and spectrophotometer. The machine cycle was approximately
30 min long with measurements made under ultraviolet light or darkness. The
total machine program and resulting QC information storage were handled by an
in-house computer.
• Filter Assembly System - Foster-Miller was contracted to automate a portion of
the assembly system for a major manufacturer of hydraulic filters. Designs were
presented for the proposed section of the assembly line and recommendations for
the automation of the complete line were made. These recommendations were
accepted and approved.
4. • Copier Assembly Line - An optomechanical copy reduction system was designed
and tested for retrofitting to an existing copier. Manufacturing engineering was
implemented along with assembly area design. Assistance was given in
installation, startup and operator instruction.
• Orthopedic Bandage Packaging Facility - This facility required a controlled
environment with 0.05 percent humidity, temperature and static electricity
controls. The system automatically dried, coated, rolled, packaged, weighed, and
discharged the bandage through an airlock. The package was purged and filled
with N2 before sealing (25 packages/min x 2 lines).
• Electrode Manufacture - Designs included a 60/min rotary indexer assembly and
a 100/min linear indexing on a pre-die cut web. Other features included on-line
printing, labeling, inspection, and ultrasonic welding.
• In-house Die Cutting Facility - Automatic feed and rewind with automatic scrap
removal to 250 strokes/minute - combination punch and steel rule die.
• Beverage Dispenser Redesign - A microprocessor controlled dispenser was
designed with built-in refrigerator, water reservoir, pressurized carbonator, pump,
mix valves, CO2 bottle and molded components. Facility layout provided
throughput of 1 unit/min.
• Coax Wire/Connector Assembly Machine - This fully automatic assembly,
stripping and inspection system has 48 station rotary indexer base (30
assemblies/min). Size range: 1 ft to 18 ft wire lengths
• Wet/Dry Binary Syringe Assembly Machine and Wet/Dry Binary I.V. Bag
Manufacturing Machine - These systems employ sterile manufacturing and
include fully automatic operation, on-line web sterilization and automatic
inspection (45 to 100 units/minute).
• High Volume Drug Packaging Line - The system incorporated 11 distinct
operations: unscrambling, cleaning, dividing, filling, cottoning, capping, labeling,
cartoning, weighing, bundling, casing, etc. (Output: 250/p/m).
Mr. Taylor also managed a program to design, develop, install and place into
production a transdermal drug dispensing device for patients with angina. The system
produces 200 filled and sealed units per minute from an input of raw materials mixing
and reeled materials.
Another filling system for which Mr. Taylor was responsible was a high-speed net
weigher. This development involved volumetric dispensing of lyophilized powders
through a dual rotary indexed system. One dial weighed bottles and the second weighed
bottles plus powder. The system featured 1g fills, 180 bpm output speed, and
microprocessor controls.
5. Mr. Taylor's packaging work has often involved specialized labeling systems as well.
Typical programs include:
• High speed labeling and label inspection system for placing labels radially on the
inside of 3 in. cores of reeled product. The system was designed to travel through
12 reels, place labels and inspect a bar code on each label on the ID of each of the
reels. Speeds to 25 labels/min.
• Labeling machines for cartridges/cassettes at rates of 80/min.
In earlier employment for Palatine Engineering of Woking in Surrey, United
Kingdom, Mr. Taylor was responsible for the construction of a variety of electromagnetic
pumps and valve components used in liquid metal cooled atomic reactors. They were
largely built of stainless steel for corrosion resistance and to function well in 600°F
temperatures. The liquid metal utilized electromagnetic (rather than mechanical) pumps.
He also designed and implemented a simulation facility to run tests as part of a study of
the corrosion characteristics of many materials exposed to liquid coolants and reactor
cores.
While employed by the Plastics Division of Metal Box Company (a major U.K.-based
supplier of containers), Mr. Taylor designed automated blow molding machinery capable
of producing large quantities of blow molded containers. While there, he also designed
extrusion equipment as well as other related thermoplastic processing machinery.
As a design engineer for the International Nickel Company of Hereford, Wales,
United Kingdom, Mr. Taylor designed large machinery used in a rolling mill which
serviced the aircraft and chemical industries. The machinery was used for producing
specialty wire rod, slab, sheet and foil products.
Mr. Taylor's accomplishments include various other designs such as military oil
coolers and thermostatic valves, and computer peripheral devices such as magnetic tape
and card reading/writing equipment.
Mr. Taylor received a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Liverpool College
of Technology in Liverpool, United Kingdom. He is a member of the American Society
of Mechanical Engineers and the British Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
6. Mr. Taylor's packaging work has often involved specialized labeling systems as well.
Typical programs include:
• High speed labeling and label inspection system for placing labels radially on the
inside of 3 in. cores of reeled product. The system was designed to travel through
12 reels, place labels and inspect a bar code on each label on the ID of each of the
reels. Speeds to 25 labels/min.
• Labeling machines for cartridges/cassettes at rates of 80/min.
In earlier employment for Palatine Engineering of Woking in Surrey, United
Kingdom, Mr. Taylor was responsible for the construction of a variety of electromagnetic
pumps and valve components used in liquid metal cooled atomic reactors. They were
largely built of stainless steel for corrosion resistance and to function well in 600°F
temperatures. The liquid metal utilized electromagnetic (rather than mechanical) pumps.
He also designed and implemented a simulation facility to run tests as part of a study of
the corrosion characteristics of many materials exposed to liquid coolants and reactor
cores.
While employed by the Plastics Division of Metal Box Company (a major U.K.-based
supplier of containers), Mr. Taylor designed automated blow molding machinery capable
of producing large quantities of blow molded containers. While there, he also designed
extrusion equipment as well as other related thermoplastic processing machinery.
As a design engineer for the International Nickel Company of Hereford, Wales,
United Kingdom, Mr. Taylor designed large machinery used in a rolling mill which
serviced the aircraft and chemical industries. The machinery was used for producing
specialty wire rod, slab, sheet and foil products.
Mr. Taylor's accomplishments include various other designs such as military oil
coolers and thermostatic valves, and computer peripheral devices such as magnetic tape
and card reading/writing equipment.
Mr. Taylor received a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Liverpool College
of Technology in Liverpool, United Kingdom. He is a member of the American Society
of Mechanical Engineers and the British Institution of Mechanical Engineers.