Hardware Podcasts

S4E27 Ian McEachern | R&D Engineering Series – Interview 5 of 6

Being an Engineer · 21 Jul 2023 · 48m · Episode 27

What this episode covers

Ian McEachern, an R&D engineer with over 15 years of experience designing complex medical devices like artificial hearts and blood pumps, discusses the unique nature of R&D engineering. He contrasts R&D with sustaining engineering, highlighting challenges such as navigating conflicting regulatory standards and sourcing specialized components from suppliers like Chamfer. McEachern advocates for leveraging modern digital manufacturing platforms like Xometry and Protolabs to accelerate hardware iteration cycles from months to weeks. He emphasizes that R&D is fundamentally built on failure, using the HeartMate blood pump's initial clotting issues as a key example of incremental improvement through rigorous testing and iteration.

Most relevant to

early-stage companies

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Chamfer, Xometry, Protolabs, Thoratec, Medtronic, Aerojet
Products
HeartMate 2, HeartMate 3
Tools
SolidWorks

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