Peter Jackson

MECHANICAL ENGINEER

Skills Overview

Peter has a range of both practical skills and theoretical knowledge that he applies to projects through a calm and logical process. His design approach considers the manufacturing processes alongside the project brief, resulting in robust solutions and smooth assembly.

Peter believes that effective communication is the key to success for projects of any size. Through his background designing industrial automation equipment in the food sector, he is adept at working with fellow engineers, key stakeholders, and suppliers to deliver results on time and to budget.

MACHINE DESIGN – Peter has designed a range of machines primarily for use around food. These include simple conveyors through to robotic gantries. Whatever the brief, he aims to develop a solution that balances cost and complexity appropriate to the timeline. Laser cut and folded sheet metal, 3D machining, waterjet cutting and injection moulded plastics are a few of the manufacturing processes Peter has applied to his design work.
COMMUNICATION & COLLABORATION – Teamwork and communication go hand in hand, and Peter has built up his abilities with both of these over years of complex projects with tight deadlines.
CAD – Peter has been steadily honing his CAD skills, reaching for faster and more efficient design work at all times. He believes that a second set of eyes and a physical model are the two most important things to apply when designing, because ironing out any issues in CAD saves a lot of time in the future.
PRACTICAL SKILLS & ENGINEERING KNOWLEDGE – With a background that involves both manufacturing parts and CAD design, Peter has learnt to apply his first-hand manufacturing knowledge to his design work. And when working on something new, he believes in talking with the manufacturer/expert and understanding how they operate before finalising a design. There is no substitute for hands-on experience when trying to deliver excellence.
COST ENGINEERING – Peter is experienced in exploring potential cost-effective replacements for components within a design. In one particular project, a heavy bearing was replaced by a thin bushing on a shaft after careful verification on a test rig, reducing cost by ~70% (for that particular mechanism), reducing overall machine footprint by ~10%, and improving access for maintenance.

Caliber has experience in the Aerospace industry

Caliber Design has experience in the Biofuel industry

PERSONAL STATEMENT

As the youngest of four boys, I was the family disappointment when I chose to become an engineer, seeing as we already had four of them in our family. But how could I do anything else when I grew up making trebuchets, spud guns and other fun devices? This drove my passion to throw around unique ideas and apply creativity wherever feasible with my design work. So long as there are no downsides to doing so, why should engineering be boring?

I started my career with a practical role maintaining heavy machinery. This solidified my hands-on skills and taught me about the importance of designing for and performing maintenance. From there I moved into the food sector, designing machines to gently convey fresh, delicate fruit through a range of systems. This taught me how to apply effective communication and teamwork over complex projects.

Outside work, I enjoy pretty much all parts of the outdoors; running, biking, swimming, skiing, diving, fishing etc., but above all I enjoy a challenge. This often backfires when I end up signing up for some extreme event, but I always hit them with everything. My practical mind also loves designing and planning various upgrades for things around the house, aiming for greater levels of optimisation.

Project Experience

AIRPORT EQUIPMENT

Product Standardisation Project

This project aimed to standardise the manufacturing drawings across AEL’s air bridges, given that they all have many repeated features and details. The end goal was to have a set of standard details all bridges were manufactured to, and then have special details and customer specifications detailed in a separate, simplified set of drawings. Alongside this was the task to tidy up the backlog of workshop feedback and drawing updates.

ACP (AUTOMATED CASE PACKER)

Blueberry Case Packer

Part of the mechanical design team for this machine which utalised robotic gantry arms to precisely and delacately place punnets of blueberries into boxes at high speeds. Designed and assisted in designing most parts on the machine over several prototype versions, along with assembly and commissioning.

CASCADE SINGULATOR

Cherry Stem Separator

This machine provided a unique solution to an issue in the cherry industry so had to verify performance over several iterations, each of which was optimised further, both in performance and cost. Assisted in assembling and commissioning several of the versions.

8MW Pellet-fed Boiler Install

This project involved the relocation of an existing coal boiler into a new site, while also converting it to run on biomass. The surrounding equipment was primarily manufactured in-house. This included structural support frames, feedwater tank, fuel surge hopper, screw conveyors, access platforms, flue ducting with expansion joints, flue stack, and pipework. Design analysis and some design/manufacture was performed by various third parties. Effective communication and quick design turnaround were required to keep everything moving according to schedule.

60MW E-Boiler Install

This project covered the installation of two new 30MW electrode boilers and surrounding equipment. This included designing a steam header, deaerator, access platforms, pump sets, and many pipelines. Analysis and design outside the boilerhouse were performed by third parties, so communication was key to ensuring discrepancies and design changes were shared between all parties.

UMC

Wire Fencing Machine Design

This project involved design support around a machine manipulating wires into fencing wire. The majority of the work was around developing conceptual mechanisms through to detailed designs and detailing existing concepts. Cost, reliability, and speed were key to the success of the machine, with requirements to cycle continuously several times per second for many key components. I was mostly involved with the Back Frame (wire spool storage and wire guiding into the main machine), the Manipulation Module (detailing mounting for major components and tidying design issues), and the Main Frame (detailing parts, designing safety doors, and creating detailed manufacturing drawings).

FORMULA:SAE

Open-Wheeled Race Car

Part of a team designing and building a FSAE (Formula Student) open-wheeled race car for the Australasian competition, in which the car was a strong competitor. Worked primarily on aerodynamics and the body shell, from the design to making the mould and trimming the carbon fibre parts.