Earl Sherrard

Experienced Mechanical Design Engineer: High-Quality Consumer Products · Cascade Designs

Ravensdale, Washington

In My Own Words

Extensive experience as a mechanical design engineer of highly rated consumer products carrying a lifetime warranty.Relentlessly seeking robust solutions aligning with customer needs across multiple categories. Growing up in rural Washington, I developed a love for the outdoors, exploring on foot, dirt bike, and 4x4. My early interest in classic cars fueled my passion for all things mechanical and led me to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering. I started my career by accident, a fun story you can read in the Norwich Guidon Article (Note: I wrote most if it): https://issuu.com/norwichuniversityoc/docs/norwich_record_summer_2021_singlepages_abf/s/12419998 I have dedicated my entire career to designing outdoor gear for the MSR brand at Cascade Designs.It's been a dream job, but now I'm seeking new opportunities. Expertise, Knowledge, & Skills Highlights:Product Development:<ul><li>All aspects; inception through development, production, and lifecycle.</li><li>Able to strategize the whole end-to-end process.</li></ul>Design Philosophy:<ul><li>Human-centered, intuitive, functional, and high-quality design, proven through testing.</li><li>Understand the customer. Understand the process.</li></ul>Prototyping:<ul><li>Making the impossible from nothing;including</li><li>machining, sheet metal fabrication, & welding.</li></ul>Testing:<ul><li>Lab, Field, and User testing;</li><li>learn fast, fail fast approach.</li></ul>Automotive:<ul><li>A hobby and some professional experience; including</li><li>restoring my 1965 Mustang, building and driving a drag racing car, and setting-up several 9” Ford Differentials in high school.</li><li>Replaced gears (Truetrac locker) & axle in my lifted & modified 1982 K5 Blazer.</li></ul>

Work Experience

Design Engineer

Cascade Designs

1999 – 2023

Responsible for new product introduction for outdoor gear brands MSR (Mountain Safety Research) & Platypus. Product Categories: Backpacking Stoves, Water Filters, Snowshoes, & Snow Anchors. Dozens of SKU’s currently on the market contain my work; see attached Design Portfolio. A couple highlights: MSR Switch Stove System; Released to market & slated for sale 2025. MSR WindBurner Expansion: A product collection (adding 8 SKU’s) from the original MSR WindBurner Personal (2018 - Current). Unique Experience at Cascade Designs/MSR: Manufacturer of outdoor gear sold globally with factories in Seattle, Reno, and Ireland. Proactive, communicative, self-motivated, responsible, adaptable. Worked outside “job description” to achieve success; product, company, and self. Limited resources required hands-on, self-reliant, creative problem-solving. Mentored and collaborated with others for company-wide success. Passionate and dedicated to product development from opportunity to market. Learned the processes: in-house tool & die & manufacturing processes. Experienced firsthand how design affects manufacturability, quality, and cost. Inherent to Outdoor Products: Used in harsh outdoor environments (temperature, water, dirt, chemicals). Minimum weight & size; strength optimized. Functional, reliable & often field-repairable/maintained.

Auto Body Apprentice/Technician

Westover Auto Rebuild Inc

1998 – 1999

Auto Body APR/Tech at respected classic car restoration shop; auto body repair, fabrication, & welding.

Education

Auto Body & Paint

Green River Community College

Hobby Course; 3 summers, full time in highschool. Restored my 1965 Mustang.

Bachelor of Science (BS)

Norwich University

1993 – 1998

Skills: Mechanical Engineering

Projects

MSR WindBurner Expansion of Products

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISam8DBayao

Lead Design Engineer of a product collection (adding 7 SKU’s) from the original WindBurner Personal. In 1 year: New stove (minus combustion), 2 new pots, and skillet change; 4 New, 3 Changed. Invented intuitive & fun to use stove legs for excellent stability with the large 4.5 L Stock Pot, yet still stows inside the smallest pot (1 L Personal) along with a 4 oz fuel canister; Fits all pot offerings. Designed the company's highest efficiency pot (≈70% for boiling water), that still excels at cooking; WindBurner Stock Pot. Designed arguably the best canister stand on the market; Greatly increasing stability of canister mounted stoves on both 4 & 8 oz canisters.

Large Format Cooking System for MSR

For MSR to enter the front-country market segment and disrupt the campstove category with a pinnacle product (≈2018 - 2019). Lead Design Engineer from inception through development (2+ years); Eventually leading a small design team. Identified unaddressed customer needs and proposed this opportunity to achieve goals of the stove category manager and the brand. Proposed and participated in framing exercises with an industrial designer. Developed new cooking technology with high quality grill, griddle, and traditional cooking modes. Developed combustion for propane with excellent flame/temperature control & supplied even heat across the cooking surfaces. Sourced and worked with new vendors for the valve and sheet metal enclosure. Worked closely with Industrial designer, manufacturing engineers, internal manufacturing, and supply chain throughout the development. Development Notes: A diverse group was selected to identify opportunities and potential issues of the user experience for various use case scenarios during the framing exercises. Built functional, modular test beds to quickly evaluate concepts. Every Friday guest users cooked whatever they wished they could cook when camping, but currently didn’t. Cost was an early known challenge; Volume of 3D models & rough raw material cost to estimate product cost with surprising accuracy to determine feasibility of project & evaluate concepts. Had vendors produce/supply prototype parts for testing as early as possible: representative results, build relationship, early back & forth feedback, smoother & faster production transition.

Platypus GravityWorks Water Filters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOYiSjcQ39M&t=114s

Lead Design Engineer (2 SKU’s): Platypus GravityWorks 2.0L Complete Kit ❙ Platypus GravityWorks 2.0L Bottle Kit. Intuitive to use Push-Pull cap adapter is removable to configure into ultralight hydration drink tube connection; User benefit allows filling of hydration reservoir without removal from pack. Bottle adapter allows a full range of bottle openings, yet can be configured to dedicate it to smaller container openings for the user benefit of being lighter/smaller; Adaptable to user’s bottle preference. Quick connect corner flange later carried over into 4 & 6L Platypus GravityWorks systems; Universal Bottle Adapter later carried over into MSR Guardian Gravity Purifier.