ROBERT PATTERSON (918) 772-6072

10308 North 427 Road Cell Phone (918) 740-4787

Hulbert, Oklahoma 74441 rpatterson33@gmail.com

An innovative and creative mechanical engineering manager/designer with 20+ years of experience and
increasing responsibilities in management, design, and cost reduction. Experienced in sourcing from US, Mexico,
China, Japan, Hong Kong, and Eastern and Western Europe, with a proven track record in negotiation. Listed
inventor on 14 patents. Delivered products that were state-of-the-art in their respective fields.

Extensive experience in the following:

• Cost Reduction • Project Management • New Product Design

• Solid Works Modeling • New Technologies • Sheet metal Design
• Plastic Part Design • Die Casting Design • Extruded Aluminum Design
• Printed Circuit Boards & Flex • Materials • Wiring harnesses, motors & fans
circuits/Mechanical

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Patterson Engineering, Hulbert, Oklahoma 2007-Present

Design, Cost Reduction, Product Strategy

• Initiated a cost reduction strategy that reduces the cost of a children’s safety restraint from $1.70
to $.35. Includes patentable design concepts using Solid Works and Asian sourcing.
• Developed a patentable wheel design to increase the ease of turning a grocery cart containing
heavy items and making the cart bi-directional.
• Implemented a new fastener that reduced production worker fatigue during installation while
maintaining long term reliability.
• Developed a patentable tip design for a walking aid.

Zebra Technologies Corporation, Camarillo, California 2006-2007

Sustaining Engineering Manager
Managed a team of engineers and project managers eliminating product defects, performing product
enhancements and cost reduction of card and photo printers for the largest specialty label printing
company serving the automotive, pharmaceutical, postal, medical, financial, retail distribution,
warehousing, defense, transportation and shipping industries with sales of more than $700 million.

• Interfaced with customers resolving complaints and directed a team that enhanced products and
reduced product defects.

• Initiated a cost reduction plan and a multifunctional team that generated $2.5 million in first-year
savings.

• Directed a group of managers that dealt with customer complaints and resolved all issues, retaining
two major accounts, representing $20 million in revenues.

Encad, a Kodak Company, San Diego, California 1999-2006

Project Manager
Initiated and managed a cost reduction team for a Fortune 500 company’s printer division producing
wide format printers, consumables and accessories, generating $100 million in annual sales.

• Initiated and managed cost reductions and quality improvements by changes in design (Solid
Works and Pro-E) and manufacturing processes, vendor optimization (U.S., Asian, and European),
material selection, and price negotiation. Newly initiated savings ranged between $1,100,000 and
$1,400,000 annually.
 • Managed commodity team to reduce cost and optimize product quality.

ROBERT PATTERSON Page Two

Encad, a Kodak Company- continued

• Directed development team for low cost printer dryer, saving $90 on each assembly. (Patent #
6,863,393)

Seagate Technology, Longmont, Colorado 1998-1999

Principal Engineer
Responsibilities include project leader, technology optimization, and hardware design.

• Directed the verification of load ramp technologies used in new drive products.

• Designed an actuated load ramp with crash stop that can be used to maximize usable disk space
and eliminate shock damage (Patent # 6,424,498)

Iomega Corporation, Roy, Utah 1986-1998

Senior Design Engineer
Responsibilities included product design, project leader, research and development.
• Designed head suspension for low profile product with unique mounting and shock limiting feature
(Patent# 6,104,573).
• Designed miniature plastic load ramps to accommodate low profile, flexible disk cartridge (Patent #
5,995,332).
• Awarded $10,000 for initiating and managing low cost head design development project. Resulting
design reduced cost of magnetic head by 50%.
• Designed die cast aluminum chassis and sealing for contamination control, for award winning Jaz
Drive.
• Designed crush resistant cartridge case used for Jaz cartridge (Patents # 5,971,145 and
#5,850,914).
• Reduced contamination in disk drive subsystem with redesign of seals, chassis, and airflow.
Resulting design reduced part cost and eliminated a replaceable filter.
• Project manager for OEM magneto optical subsystem.
• Patent awarded for unique filtration system used in removable media cartridge. Product life
increased by two times and data reliability increased by ten times (Patent # 4,969,061).

Seagate Technology, Scotts Valley, California 1983-1986

Staff Engineer
Performed research and development of magnetic head assemblies for one of the world’s foremost
manufacturers of magnetic hard drives.
• Set up a new laboratory for head development, including the design and prototype manufacture of
low volume production, tooling, and test equipment.
• Worked with suppliers in Asia and the United States, providing hard drive components to bring new
products to market.
ROBERT PATTERSON Page Three

Storage Technology Corporation, Louisville, Colorado 1978-1983

Staff Engineer
Performed research, technology development, and manufacturing for manufacturer of disk drives (14-
inch).
• Developed a capacitance probe slider for detection of flying height variation of magnetic heads
over rotating disks.
• Investigated head flight dynamics using capacitance probe sliders, piezoelectric transducers and
white light interferometry.
• Developed a technique to measure lubricant thickness using capacitance measurement.
• Developed a method for measuring flight dynamics of magnetic heads.
• Invented a method for measuring magnetic head flying heights using a capacitance method.
• Developed a glide head calibration standard that quantified glide head output.

EDUCATION
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, California
Bachelor of Science, Mechanical Engineering, 1978