Senior Design Engineer

Academic Division: Mechanics, Materials and Design

Telephone: +44 1223 3 32763

Email: neh27@eng.cam.ac.uk

Research interests

Neil has comprehensive technical experience from both industrial product design projects and academic projects within the following fields:

• Air bearing design - rotary spindles, high speed spindles, and linear bearings
• Automation systems
• Drive system design using ball screws, lead screws, wire drives, capstans, belt systems, chain systems, gearboxes, brakes, clutches, etc
• Electric motor systems including stepper motors, syncronous motors, brushed & brushless motors servo-controlled actuators and tuning,from 10W to 300kW systems
• Electrical engineering and control panel systems
• Electronic instrumentation and Signal Processing
• Finite Element Analysis - 30 years experience of linear, non-linear, static, modal, thermal, analysis
• Flexure bearings
• Fluid systems
• Gearbox systems and temperature controlled oil cooling systems for high power gearboxes
• Heat transfer and thermal system design
• Heat treatment - stress relieving, annealing, hardening and tempering
• Hydraulic system design
• Hydrostatic bearing design, analysis, and manufacture
• Kinematic bearings and kinematic mounting in instrument design
• Labview software development for instrumentation and control applications
• Machine tool design
• Manufacturing methods and machine tools
• Mechanical bearing design - large high speed spindles, machine tools, and linear bearings
• Mechatronic design
• Pneumatic system design
• Polymer engineering and rubber design
• Polymer concrete structures in precision machines
• Precision instrument design
• Pressure vessel design, analysis, and certification
• Sensor systems, and transducers
• Servo-hydraulic systems
• Structural design
• System design and commissioning
• Ultra-precision machine design

Neil is available to provide technical advice, engineering design and consultancy to staff, students, and external organisations.

Patent Registrations:

• Lossless continuously adjustable mechanical devices. Application No. 628483362 Filed 2019. Tryphon T. Georgiou, Faryar Jabbari, Malcolm C. Smith, Neil E. Houghton.
• Force controlling hydraulic device. Patent Number 8881876. Filed 2012. Malcolm C. Smith, Neil E. Houghton, Peter J.G. Long, Anthony Richard Glover.
• Electromagnetic Flexure. Patent Number US9404602. Filed 2014. David Cebon, Andrew Odhams, Neil Houghton, Wladyslaw Wygnanski, Jonathan Miller, Robert D. Prescott, Leon M. Henderson, Laurence J. Potter

Other positions

• Chartered Engineer
• Fellow of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers

Biography

Neil graduated from Loughborough University in 1992 with a First Class Honours Degree in Mechanical Engineering. He was sponsored throughout his studies by the precision instrument manufacturer, Taylor Hobson Ltd, where he completed his placement year. Upon graduation Neil was employed by Taylor Hobson Ltd as Mechanical Design Engineer, was promoted to Senior Engineer in 1994, Principal Mechanical Engineer in 1996, and Principal Systems Engineer in 2000. In this role he provided technical leadership on many new product developments including the Microform SM CNC glass grinding machine, Nanoform 250 CNC Diamond Turning Lathe, Variform Contact Lens Lathe Fast Tool Servo, Talyrond 290 fully automated roundness measuring system, and the 2003 Form Talysurf Product Range including the complete re-design of the PGI gauge ( Phase Grating Interferometer gauge head ). A significant speciality within this role was ultra-precision design and fluid film bearing design including extensive experience of both linear / rotary air bearings, and oil film hydrostatic bearings. In 1993 he conceptualised, analysed and designed the bronze air bearing spindle used to date within the Talyrond 200 series instruments.

In 2003 Neil joined the University of Cambridge, Department of Engineering as Senior Design Engineer. In this role he leads and takes responsibility for the multi-disciplinary design and engineering of significant research hardware developments which have included a CNC sheet metal forming machine,  a CNC sand pouring machine, a multi-axle HGV trailer system with all wheel steering and regenerative braking, a servo-hydraulic earthquake simulator, a CNC tyre wear testing system, many turbine and compressor aero-research systems ( AIDA Rig, Boundary Layer Compressor Rig, Peregrine Rig, SMURF Rig, Gibbon's Rig, SAMULET Rig etc. ), inerter related developments, and many safety critical pressure vessel systems. Neil has completed approximately 250 significant project developments to date across all of the Departmental Divisions, using a comprehensive range of multi-disciplinary engineering technology in their solution.

Department role and responsibilities

• To facilitate prestigious and highly complex research projects within the Department by providing a comprehensive in-house consultancy service to academic staff, research staff, and students.
• To provide the highest level of engineering design authority within the Department
• To provide safety related technical advice
• To manage design engineering activities and design staff jointly with the other Senior Design Engineers
• To contribute to teaching within the Department