Mechanical Engineering Team
The Mechanical Engineering Team leads the product design process for new electro-mechanical products. These products include stages, actuators, microscopes, and other automation devices that facilitate the scientific research and technology development that our customers are engaged in. Our work involves collaborating with several other teams to formulate the product requirements. We also work with potential customers outside of Zaber to learn more about their use cases and needs. We brainstorm, prototype and test conceptual designs, working with other engineers on the mechanical design, testing and production engineering and electrical engineering teams as well as machinists from our internal shop. We are a hands-on team! We machine, build and test many of our own designs. This helps us to gain a deeper understanding of the nuances of the manufacturing processes we use and how we can best exploit them in our designs - also we just love building stuff! Finally, we refine our conceptual designs into finished products and work with many other teams to move them into production and get them into the hands of customers.
In addition to new product design, our team works closely with our production engineering team to support and improve existing products already in production. We also work with our marketing team to develop website content such as whitepapers and application examples that helps our customers to turn our products into complete automation solutions.
Working to Make Automation Easier
At Zaber, we're always working to lower the barriers to automation. Join David Goosen from our Mechanical Engineering Team as he shares how we try to make that happen.
Mechanical Design: Optimal Learning Environment
Zaber has been on my radar since my first term at university, largely due to its reputation for providing Co-op students with meaningful work experience in a supportive environment. This became clear from the start of my hiring process when I was struck by the team's caring communication. I felt that the hiring staff genuinely cared about ensuring I made an informed decision aligned with my long-term career goals. With a variety of roles to fit any engineering interest, I found that by clearly communicating my aspirations, my supervisor made a visible effort to assign projects that matched my interests. While working on the mechanical team, I had the opportunity to make tangible improvements to many of Zaber’s products
MYAGI and More: My Co-op Experience
Having been part of a previous hiring process, Zaber reached out to me to see if I was interested in a Co-op position. The hiring team was accommodating; I got Covid before my interview, so the team took that into account and adjusted the process. I knew my interview would be technical and hard; I'd be expected to get lost in it, and knowing that helped. While the questions are designed to challenge you, the interviewers were good at guiding you if they knew what you were getting at. As Zaber specializes in precision motion control and has an excellent reputation amongst co-ops, I accepted an offer from Zaber believing it would be an ideal opportunity for a Mechanical Engineering student
ZX Day
Our annual hackathon is a chance for anyone at the company to put together a team and deliver something that they think is worthwhile. It's a short burst of autonomy where oversight and process tends to take a back seat to creativity and elbow grease. A number of our products and internal tools started out as ZX projects. And even if you don't work on a ZX project, the final stretch is always exciting to watch and culminates in presentations and celebrations.
Parallel Axis Tripteron Concept
Zaber's R&D team does some interesting work in the name of experimentation and exploration and not always with a clear purpose in mind. Such is the path to innovation. A recent example is "Frogbot". .
Questions? Email Adam at ahurrell@zaber.com.