Richard Michael: Project Engineer

Education: BS Mechanical Engineering, 1960 and Master of Engineering, 1970 from Iowa State University

Richard has a broad background in vehicle design with a focus on transmission design, gears, bearings, clutches, shafts, finite element and dynamic analysis.

Background

Mr. Michael joined the US Army Corp of Engineers for 6 months. After getting his degrees, he joined John Deere, where he worked as a Design Engineer and Manager of Advanced Drivetrain Engineering. He also traveled to Japan, Germany and England to provide consulting services.

Since joining us in 1994, Richard has worked on hay balers, the Wide Area Mower, the transmission for an electric drive tractor, and high speed tractor design.

At Diedrichs & Associates, Inc. Dick has led or contributed to a wide variety of projects. Dick is one of the individuals that work on complex analytical problems. Some examples of work he has been involved in are:

• Experimental Baler – design of special drive to replace plunger mechanism
• Transmission design for tractor with electric drive.
• Layout of drive train and gear design for electric drive tractor
• Design of front axle and steering for high speed tractor
• Failure analysis on steering system for large spacecraft transport vehicle
• Design of new steering system for large spacecraft transport vehicle with steerable cam lobe hydraulic wheel motors.
• Finite Element Analysis Projects and failure analysis studies
• Design analysis on garbage truck equipment
• Stress analysis of truck trailer walls with internally mounted mechanized unloader system using strain gage data and classical analysis procedures
• FEA analysis on part of roller mill for grain processing
• Foundry handling equipment
• Distributing elements for new agricultural implement
• Oil well drilling equipment
• Design of an auger drive for compaction of corn stoves, and related materials

Over the course of his career, Dick has worked on a number of projects and technical investigations. The following illustrates the variety of projects that he has worked on:

• Transmission and Drive-train design – Gears, Shafts, Bearings and Housings
• Worldwide Utility Tractor
• Large row crop tractors
• Four Wheel drive tractors
• Transmissions
• Axles
• Clutches and brakes
• Power shift transmissions
• Infinitely variable transmissions (IVT)
• Hydraulic control valves for drivetrain applications
• Mechanical infinitely variable transmission
• Cost reduction and performance improvement
• Advanced Design projects
• Vibration analysis
• Clutch cooling
• Gear wear on final drives
• Hydrostatic transmission concepts

Additional Information

Publications

“Key Elements of Brake and Clutch Design” , Society of Automotive Engineers, (SAE), 1991.

Patents