QUALIFICATIONS
- BE Mech (Hons) – 2017
- Functional Safety Technician: FS Tech (TÜV Rheinland, #4356/11, SIS)
- Wheels Tracks Rollers endorsements
- Forklift endorsement
SOFTWARE
Mechanical CAD Software
- AutoCAD
- Creo (PTC)
- Inventor (Autodesk)
- OnShape (PTC)
- SolidWorks (Dassault)
- Vellum Graphite
PDM/PLM Software
- Inventor Vault (Autodesk)
- SolidWorks PDM (Dassault)
Analysis Tools
- AxisVM
- Hilti PROFIS
- SolidWorks Simulation (Dassault)
Josh Sutcliffe
MECHANICAL ENGINEER
Skills Overview
Josh is an experienced Mechanical Engineer, skilled in both design and project engineering. His expertise spans from conceptual to detailed design, especially in rollform machines and mechanical systems. He’s proficient in hand calculations and FEA. Josh grew up in an engineering workshop, and so brings years of hands-on experience in machining, fabrication, and assembly. Known for his practical approach and technical know-how, Josh excels in projects that demand innovative design coupled with efficient management.
- MECHANICAL DESIGN & MACHINE DEVELOPMENT – Josh’s work in designing and commissioning new rollform tooling for a commercial roofing profile, along with his experience in analysing a fabricated rollformer chassis to increase rigidity without adding excess weight in SolidWorks FEA, showcases his skill in creating efficient and innovative mechanical solutions. His other notable work includes the concepting and detailed design of two punching stations on a cooktop line for Scott Technology, and the design of a unique dual-drum feeder to convert an existing coal boiler to run on woodchips and/or wood pellets.
- PROJECT ENGINEERING – Josh has demonstrated his skill in managing and delivering mechanical projects. At Angus Robertson Mechanical, he delivered many rollforming and material handling machines from the concept stage, to tuning the profile to spec in-house, and through to site commissioning. Other notable projects include the design and project management of a double-pivot/articulating 1-tonne jib crane; and the refurbishment of a garage door track curver, replacing the cut-off saw and adding interlocked machine guarding, significantly improving cycle times and safety.
- DESIGN FOR FABRICATION & HYGIENIC FABRICATION – Projects include designing machine bases, drop stackers, and crane designs, as well as pipe supports and work platforms at Lyttleton Engineering. His forays into hygienic fabrication include designing machinery for lamb meat processing lines at Scott Technology and a Bagel seeding and traying line at Newsmith.
- SAFETY ENGINEERING – Josh has designed machine guarding to AS 4024 standards at ARM. He developed new standard guarding designs; integrating ease of use and maintenance while ensuring operator safety. He completed a Functional Safety Technician course with TÜV Rheinland.
- TESTING & QUALITY IMPROVEMENT – Josh has developed test rigs, conducted shear testing and development for clean and consistent cutting of rollformed profiles, and fine-tuned rollformers.
PERSONAL STATEMENT
I have been around engineering environments since a young age, as my old man runs a general engineering business. So as a youngster and all through school I was there in the weekends sweeping the floors and producing small parts.
As I grew up I enjoyed working on my own mountain bikes, then motorbikes, then cars. It seemed natural for me to follow down the path of engineering, and when I found out you could study mechanical engineering at university, I knew that was what I wanted to do.
Today I enjoy the process of working through a design project, whether it be conceptualising a new design or making improvements to existing designs. I continuously strive to find the simplest and most efficient way of achieving goals and to always do better than the last project.
Project Experience
Dual Fuel Drum Feeder for Boiler Biomass Conversion
Design of unique drum feeder adapted from the typical single drum design. This was designed to fit in place of an existing coal drum feeder. The new design bolted directly in place without any site adjustment required and featured 2 separate drums and flow streams for wood pellets and for wood chip. From this project I gained new knowledge in handling of biomass fuels, boiler systems, operation of 3D point cloud software, design of complex fabricated parts, and more.
Wood Pellet Silo & Accessway Design
Design of an 80m^3 silo to contain wood pellets for a boiler biomass conversion. This design featured unique internal product handling to reduce the risk of breaking up the wood pellets into fines. The silo incorporated explosion panels and a baghouse to control the risk of explosions from the fine wood dust. Access ladders and platforms were also incorporated to the design.
Pipework, Ducting & Supports
Design of boiler support pipework including steam, condensate, and feedwater lines, design for thermal expansion and for seismic stresses. Feed air and flue gas ductwork design. Design and analysis of supports for pipework and ducting, floor anchoring checks. Single post cantilever designs as well as moment resisting frames.
Equipment Stands
Design of moment resisting frames for equipment, including analysis and obtaining final sign off with structural engineers.
Platforms & Accessways
Design work platforms, stairways, and ladders to AS/NZS 1657 for multiple pieces of equipment.
Plant Layouts
Modelling of plant layouts to ensure ergonomic access to valves, control panels, maintenance items.
Bagel Seeding & Traying Line
The client required an automated system to take bagels from the dough forming stage, apply seeds to either side of the bagel, and place the bagels onto an oven tray at the end of the line. Starting with similar previous designs from the client, I designed a new line of conveyors in 4 stages for this process. The new line would accept 2 parallel streams of bagels at the outfeed of the forming line and apply a water spray and seeds to both sides of the bagel. The bagels are then fed onto a cooking tray using a retracting conveyor.
Automation of System Guide Rail Adjustment
Research, development, testing, concept design of a system to automatically adjust the produce guide rails on one of Wyma’s machines. This concept and prototype incorporated electric actuators and linear guides for setting positions in horizontal and vertical axis. Development of the prototype system is ongoing.
Optical Robocut Commercial Design Revisions
I helped with updating the design of the Optical RotoCut, moving it from a version 1 design to a fully hygienic ready-to-cook produce processing machine. I was involved with updated hygienic design of the waste conveyor, and lighting systems for the computer vision.
Structures Design & Analysis
Worked with the structures team at Wyma designing and analysing structural supports and accessways for conveyors, filters, tanks, and other plant.
Tank Design
Concepting, design and analysis on catch tanks underneath equipment and the structural supports that were integrated with the tanks.
Lighting Enclosure for Camera Vision
Design enclosure for camera vision system to reduce external lighting interference. Ease of access to camera for maintenance and cleaning was maintained. Result is improved detection and identification of product for higher efficiency of the system.
SCOTT TECHNOLOGY
Automated Cooktop Forming Line
This project was for a fully automated cooktop production line which produces multiple different variations of the basic cooktop shape. I designed 2 new stations for this line using previous similar designs as a starting point. These stations required the ability to automatically change between different selectable tooling packages at the push of a button. The positioning of these features is critical to the product quality so heavy consideration was made to ensure reliable and repeatable operation. Space constraints between features on the product were a challenge for this project and custom punch and die shapes had to be developed in some cases.
Robot End Affector Design
Design of a simple aluminium frame for the end of a robot to carry 3 different sizes of sheet metal parts from a press to a printing station, then to a folding station. For this project I got to learn about specifying vacuum generators and suction cups. The design had to include provision for setting reference points for the robot to determine a reference plane to work off.
FEA Rollformer Chassis
Took an existing fabricated machine chassis made from laser cut plate and analyzed in SW FEA to increase its rigidity to allow better product consistency. Achieved a significant increase in rigidity with little weight increase.
Double Pivot / Articulating 1t Jib Crane
Designed a 1-tonne jib crane that needed to swing 360 degrees around a portal frame. The crane had a short section which swung 180 degrees and the crane beam was mounted on that to achieve the full 360 degrees movement.
Commercial Roofing Profile Tooling Design
Designed and commissioned brand new rollform tooling design for a broad sheet commercial roofing profile.
Testing Punch Profiles for Steel Framing Rollformer
Designed and made a test rig, and then performed testing using a load sensor, a DTI and a vice on sample materials for a steel framing rollformer that needed holes punched with a small flare without any tearing. Measured the punching force required to relay to the lead designer on the project and iterated the punch design in conjunction with the lead designer and one of the toolmakers.
Garage Door Track Curver Upgrade
The track curver was an existing piece of machinery designed to take straight rollformed lengths of garage door track, curve it 180° around a large die, and then cut it down the middle of the bend to create a pair of 90° track bends. The existing cut-off saw was noisy and slow and did not meet modern machine safety standards. I performed cut tests on product samples using the workshop cold saw, while simulating different clamp profiles and cutting directions to reduce vibrations and noise, while reducing cut times. I designed a new subframe and a new cutting table to mount the new componentry. A commercially available coldsaw was purchased to use for the upgrade and it’s movement was actuated by an air over oil system. Pneumatically actuated clamps held the product. Interlocked guarding was added around hazardous areas. The new design greatly reduced cycle times and noise, and removed or reduced several hazards, improving operator safety.
Rollformer Guarding, Shear & Tooling Retrofit
An existing dual level roofing rollforming machine needed a series of upgrades, including an upgraded shear, safety guarding, and new corrugate profile tooling. An existing dual level electromechanical shear design was installed to replace the existing hydraulic shear and improve cycle times. Interlocked gullwing guarding was custom designed to be bolted to existing holes at the top of the machine. The corrugate tooling was upgraded to a proven corrugate tooling design. I travelled to the machine to take measurements, then designed new tool shafts and assemblies to allow alignment and tuning of the new tools in situ. The new tooling worked better than the original and both the service team and the customer was happy with how the installation and tuning went.
Shear Design for Complex Rollformed Profiles
Just as important as the profile tooling on a rollformer is cutting the product to length. Typically this is performed using a custom made shear designed to match the profile of the product. I have designed blade profiles and shear assemblies for gutter, fascia, and roofing profiles. Choosing the most appropriate shear blade cutting direction and the location of any pierce points relative to the profile is vital for the design of the shear to reduce cycle times by reducing the stroke needed, and to reduce the chance of tearing and creating burrs on the cut edges. Once this is determined the cutting forces need to be analysed in tandem with the design of the cutting blade profile. The design also requires a means of guiding product into and out of the shear cleanly, specifying actuation systems such as hydraulics, cut sensing etc.
GOOD BUGGER AWARD
June 2025
Josh was nominated by Peter Jackson because, despite a heavy workload, he took the time to help Peter get up to speed at Lyttelton and has been happy to review several documents along the way. He’s consistently active on Teams, always willing to answer questions and support others. A recent example that stood out—Josh reached out to an engineer at Lyttelton to follow up on a loose end from one of his previous projects, months after he had moved on to a different secondment.
March 2022
One of the things that is unique about Caliber is the culture of knowledge sharing. Josh was awarded the Good Bugger award for being an awesome colleague and helping out one of our new staff members. Go you Josh, that’s what being a Caliber engineer is all about.
July 2021
Good Bugger for July was Josh! He’s done an outstanding job in his first two months at Caliber. Josh has well and truly hit the ground running and has received high praise from our client, SCOTT Technology.
