1. martin
Mechanical Engineer
anthony +44 (0) 79 8469 3139
martin.anthony.nilsson@gmail.com
April 2011
nilsson
m.a.n
2. “…what inspires me is the creation of designs which really do make the world
a better place”.
From an early age I have always been captivated by engineering and design and the mechanics of how things fuse together to create
works which are both aesthetically pleasing and highly functional. It was this passion which saw me undertake a tertiary education in
Mechanical Engineering and then pursue a career the field.
In 2008 I joined a sheet metal fabrication, manufacturing and design company in Cape Town which offered both a position of
responsibility and exposure to clients which enabled me to become a highly capable and proficient designer, engineer and
draughtsman.
Understanding the needs of a client and being able to produce both the design and manufacture to suit has given me great satisfaction
and has increased my hunger to make my next move to the next challenging position to demonstrate my abilities.
Outside of the workplace I have sought sanctuary from my interest in engineering from cars and remote controlled hobbies; not only
have I completely rebuilt the engine on my car and serviced and upgraded many of the parts but I have also serviced and repaired
friends cars, installed countless car radio and sound systems and assisted a friend on a project Caterham kit car. I have also had a
great interest in radio controlled hobbies (Planes, helicopters and cars) and have worked for a year and a half in the industry and have
had many models my own recreation and repairing.
I think what inspires me is the creation of designs which really do make the world a better place, things which you can really can get
excited about. It is these world changing designs, designs such as the internal combustion and jet engine; bullet train and maglev
train; to the Millau Viaduct bridge, which inspires me to progress further in my field of engineering design to be in a position to create
or be apart of such a design myself.
Over the next fourteen pages you will get a taste of the projects that I have worked on over
the last three years, which I hope will demonstrate my abilities.
Martin A. Nilsson
3. Exploded View
Assembly
Client: BP and Wild Bean Café
Brief: To design a wall mounted
illuminated flex-face sign
for Wild Bean Café – a
I initially designed this sign to be illuminated via a string of LED lights to provide an efficient whole café which operates out
life cost, however through a Value Management exercise the client wanted the most economic of all BP service stations
solution; I redesigned the sign to be illuminated with eight fluorescent tubes to fulfil the clients in and around South
requirements. Other challenges included designing a quick release front panel to replace burnt out Africa.
tubes and designing brackets to hold the ballasts. Since the initial project, BP Garages increased their
order to have the sign rolled out to all new and refurbished Cafes across South Africa.
Final Product
4. 3D Computer Design The first challenge I
had with this project
was the time given by
BP to design and
complete the sign
which had to be ready
for the ribbon cutting
opening ceremony of Client: BP
the new Technology
Centre which the sign
Brief: To design an aerofoil
would be in full view
profile shaped sign to be
of all the top BP
placed at the entrance to
directors.
the BP Technology Centre
in Kyalami Johannesburg.
Final product before vinyling Even though the final size, shape Initial concept Drawing
and finish of the sign was critical
it was left up to me to design the
sign cost effectively and within a
tight deadline which meant it also
had to be easy to manufacture.
I designed this one-off bespoke
sign to consist of:
• a bolt cage; which is
submerged in concrete
underground.
• an inner frame; to give it
rigidity, and
• outer cladding; to create the
final aerofoil shape.
The final vinyl covering with the BP logo was done
on site in Kyalami Johannesburg.
5. Final Design and Installation The design started with the division of tasks; I
decided on taking up the task of designing the
‘BP express’, ‘BP Ultimate’, and ‘Wild Bean’
panels of the pylon.
The challenge in this project was matching the
design of the panels to fit the frame - which was
still in the design process - and the attachment
brackets to the frame.
The 14 meter pylon was designed first because
this project unfortunately was also to be
designed to a tight schedule before the opening
of a new station along the national N2 highway
near Sir Lowry’s Pass in the Western Cape.
Client: BP
Brief: To work in a team of 4
to design a 14 meter
and 7 meter high BP
Pylon with LED Pricing
panels
The design took longer
than expected leaving an
almost impossible manu-
facturing time. This is
when I took on the role of
fabricator/ assembler/
manufacturing manager in
the workshop for a couple
of weeks to ensure the
manufacture and delivery
of this project on time.
6. Local Newspaper Clipping Drawing View
Client: Cape Winelands District
Municipality
I was initially briefed in this project by being given samples of
the various computer components that were going to be used
in the kiosk, and was asked to design a free standing kiosk to
Brief: To design an internet
accommodate these components. Continued…. kiosk for the Cape
Winelands District
3D Design and exploded View municipality aimed at
providing internet
facilities to the
underprivileged farm
workers of the
District community.
7. The components which I had to design
First Prototype
this kiosk around included a stainless steel
waterproof keyboard and touchpad mouse,
a 15” Samsung flat screen, a small computer
casing which housed a dual core processor
and modem and a UPS battery pack.
Using these components, it was important
that the design of the free standing kiosk
was ergonomically suited to accommodate
both a person of average height as well as a
wheel chair bound individual.
Client: Cape Winelands District
Final Prototype Municipality
The client gave me a lot of flexibility in the design of this
kiosk as they were not set on the ‘look’ of the final Brief:. To design an internet
product. After a couple of sketches, the design you see kiosk for the Cape
here was approved and 25 of these kiosks were installed Winelands District
in and around the Cape Winelands District area. municipality aimed at
providing internet
Final Production facilities to the
underprivileged farm
workers of the
District community.
8. The criteria for this sign were that it had to be illuminated Final Product
and accommodate an A0 aluminium advertising snap Client: ACSA
frame. In the design I wanted to stay away from welding
and fabricating as much as possible to keep the overall
assembly time of the final product to a minimum, this also Brief: To design an illuminated
resulted in a more cost effective method which the client
advertising board for
was very appreciative of.
Airports Company South
Africa (ACSA) to be placed
3D design and exploded View in all airports around
South Africa.
The final sign was a bolt together
design. All the bolt-together
components were also symmetrical
from left to right reducing the parts
list and easing assembly.
9. Computer Design
I had to design the pump island surround according to the Exel specifications. The concept was to
lay the surround on the site and fill it with concrete creating the surround on which the pump will
Client: Exel Service Station
be placed. The challenge with the project was that the finished component was seven meters in
length and there was a fear of it warping under the weight of the concrete. It therefore needed
sufficient supports which would not interfere with the inner workings of the pump. I created a
Brief: To design a brushed
design which incorporated strategically placed triangular supports on either end to overcame this. stainless steel ‘pump
island surround’ for all
the new Exel Service
Final Product
station sites ,as well as
refurbished sites, in and
around South Africa.
10. 3D designed components
Client: In House Design
Brief: Completely redesign the
cool drink can dispenser
and modify the design of
the refrigeration unit of
the 3rd prototype vending
machine, a machine
designed and built at SPT
to be their flagship
product.
This project was started in 2007 as an internally developed vending machine to approach the
vending machine market as the only vending machine designed and built in South Africa. The
design brief was to create a state of the art refrigerated vending machine that could vend cans of
cool drinks as well as confectionaries, able to accept bank notes as well as currency, have GSM
capabilities so the machines owner could check stock with a mobile phone and the final machine
was to compete pricewise with the Chinese and Italian vending machine market - where majority
of the South African Vending machines being sold in South Africa were coming from. Continued….
11. Can Dispensing Unit I took over the role of design engineer two years into the
project before the 3rd prototype was built. As there were glitches
in the soft drink can dispensing units and the Refrigeration unit,
it was my task to redesign, build and test these components until
they ran perfectly for the 3rd prototype machine.
The new redesigned can-dispensing unit was a completely new
and bespoke design that basically used 3 main sheet metal
components pop riveted together resulting in a component that
was 5 times less expensive and more reliable with than the
dispenser unit on the 2nd prototype.
3rd Prototype Client: In House Design
Brief: Completely redesign the
cool drink can dispenser
and modify the design of
the refrigeration unit of
Refrigeration Unit the 3rd prototype vending
machine, a machine
designed and built at SPT
to be their flagship
product.
12. I based the design on the theory of
Computer Design
taking the dispensing spirals, already in
use in the confectionary trays of the
large main vending machine, and
attaching them to mechanical rotary
coin acceptors (in use with bouncing
ball or gum ball vending machines)
thereby allowing the dispense of
products only after the correct amount
of change was inserted in the coin
acceptor.
I then designed a wall mounted lockable
display cabinet with a coin box and Client: In House Design
product dispensing chute that housed 5
of these spirals allowing the dispense of
5 different products. Brief: To design a confectionary, wall
mounted vending machine for
use in venues with limited
electricity supply.
This machine could then be
placed almost anywhere
vending products at a fraction
of the price to the owner than
the standard vending machine,
but its limited to ambient
temperature confectionary
13. Computer Design and colour scheme
Client: City of Cape Town
Brief: To design an illuminated
sign for Cape Town’s new
IRT (Integrated Rapid
Transit system) Bus
Stations. The signs were
to be placed at all the
new bus stations in and
around Cape Town.
I had to design a sign made of sheet metal cladding to cover Shield Design
existing poles already designed by architects and already
installed on 14 sites.
The challenge with this project was the fact that after the
design of the sign was finished to a tolerance of 2 or 3mm, it
was found that the architects had as much as a 20 millimetre
tolerance in some of the critical sign attachment points over
the 14 sites that were measured. Continued…
14. Final Product
Client: City of Cape Town
Municipality
Brief: To design an illuminated
sign for Cape Towns new
IRT (Integrated Rapid
Transit system) Bus
Stations . The signs were
to be placed at all the
new bus stations in and
around Cape Town.
The brackets holding the sign in place had to therefore be a
lot more adjustable with large slotted holes in order to
overcome the large tolerance, and filler plates had to be
designed to fill gaps cause by this excessive adjustment
therefore making each sign fit each pole uniquely.
15. I sketched and modelled this rotary Client: Drew for my own
engine to better understand the Wankel interest in my own
rotary internal combustion cycle and time.
better understand the drawing of the
rotary casing using an Epitrochoid curve. Brief: Drew a working 3D
model of the Wankel
Rotary Engine in
Solid Works 2010.
But after a couple of weeks of modelling I got a bit
carried away and ended up modelling everything
from the stationary gear to the inlet ports, exhaust
ports, spark plugs and water jackets in the casing to
the seals, bearings and gear in the rotor all the way
to the eccentric shaft and flywheel.
