SCOTT  HARLAN P.E.


Mechanical Engineering

Consultant


Scott Harlan P.E.

California Professional Engineer License M31719

scott@scottharlanpe.com

(831)-210-4645

19518 Creekside Ct.  

Salinas, California 93908

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Experience In:

  • Prototype Design
  • Feasibility Studies
  • Cost Reduction
  • Reliability Improvement

My name is Scott Harlan and I am a professional mechanical engineer based in Salinas, California.  I have designed and managed for a variety of companies around the world as both an employee and engineering consultant. This design and management experience has included prototype agricultural equipment, trailers, military vehicles, motorcycles, and aircraft ground support equipment.    


Over twenty years of mobile equipment design experience has included a wide array of prototype machinery, fabrications and machine components.  Selecting the best process to manufacture a part is a vital key to making a cost effective and reliable design. With an intimate familiarity with the capabilities and limitations of typical fabricating processes, I can efficiently create reliable and cost effective design.  This familiarity with processes includes an understanding of the tolerances produced through methods such as flame cutting, plasma cutting, laser cutting, and water jet cutting.  The design of sand castings, investment castings, die castings, and plastic molded parts is also within the scope of my experience.  By choosing the best process to make parts, the product cost can be reduced.


I have conducted feasibility studies on multiple projects to evaluate the estimated cost and performance new machines.  This can be a valuable tool to verify that there is a reasonable return on investment before spending large sums of money.


In addition to machine design experience I have substantial experience managing engineering projects, groups, and departments. Some of these engineering projects have included the intricacies of coordinating engineering efforts from different engineering groups around the world.  Many projects included developing prototypes on short time frames with tight budgets. Other projects have been tightly focused on optimization to achieve the best possible machine cost or reliability.  If you need help managing a mechanical engineering project or group, I can help. 


The trays on this celery machine are made of  aluminum for light weight and have rounded corners for worker safety.

Celery machine is designed to quickly reduce to 102" wide for shipping.

Indian Motorcycle presented interesting challenges in terms of design for fatigue resistance.

Cruiser motorcycle with rigidly mounted engine required extensive  fatigue analysis on components.  Design changes could not interfere with achieving the best possible fit and finish.

This cargo loader was engineered to have a large number of common parts with its smaller counterpart.

Aircraft cargo loader incorporates a conveyor system capable of conveying left/right, forward/backward, and rotating 15,000 pound cargo containers in a slim 6" depth

Military wrecker prototype prior to testing at Aberdeen proving grounds.

Military wrecker required great attention to component weight and weight distribution to prevent overloading the chassis.

Attention to food safety was important in the design of this spinach harvester.

This spinach harvester required a small, inexpensive, yet rugged track drive design.