Designing, manufacturing and supporting testing equipment for the textile industry.

[www.james-heal.co.uk]

Four months

Electronic design engineer

My main role was designing a new product for tensile testing fabrics. This was an intelligent machine able to stretch fabrics in accordance with various standards whilst logging force and elongation information to a PC.

I gained a clear understanding of what was required through watching and talking to users as well as reading the Visual Basic software written for an earlier product. I designed electronics able to accurately measure the force and elongation and began developing the communication protocol and firmware needed to drive the motor.

I found it particularly interesting and exciting to be part of a rebranding exercise aimed at revamping all of James Heal's machines, so that they exude a sense of attention to detail and elegance, along with that quality look and feel found only on high precision instruments.