MIKE CARLIER

Mr. Michael T. Carlier

Senior Technical Consultant, Integrated Test and Measurement (ITM)

Mike has four decades of project engineering and management experience in engineering services. As co-founder and current chief executive of SixDOF Testing & Analysis Inc., he also serves as a technical consultant at Integrated Test and Measurement (ITM).

Prior to SixDOF, Mike co-founded the engineering testing company Manta Corporation. As co-founder of Manta, he balanced technical and sales activities within a testing and analysis group that included an automotive-targeted joint venture in Detroit, the creation of which he spearheaded in 1996 and managed as a start-up. He also served as the technical director of Manta’s testing programs and pursued strategies for penetration into several testing markets, including off-highway vehicles, metals processing, and machine tool equipment.

Mike began his career as a project engineer for Structural Dynamics Research Corporation (SDRC), where he was promoted to manager of instrumentation/computer services, manager of testing services, and finally project manager of custom systems for the engineering services/software company.

At SDRC, Mike specialized in analyzing problems of vibration and shake in vehicle systems to improve ride quality; minimizing vibration in buildings and foundations systems; solving problems of chatter in metal removal of machine tools; and conducting experimental stress analysis of mechanical equipment.

While at SDRC, he also:

• Solved gear failure problems in main drive of basic oxygen furnace, fatigue failures of punch presses, and coupling failure of rolling mills using strain gage telemetry;
• Reduced excessive vibration in paper-making/textile machines and continuous casters while improving mold alignment;
• Conducted vibration and modal tests to eliminate machine tool chatter and recommended redesigns;
• Reduced vibration and noise in engines using operating tests, modal tests, and dynamic balancing;
• Used seismic testing for seismic qualification;
• Applied beam modeling, modal testing, and curve fitting to predict auto and truck frame dynamics and their relation to vehicle dynamics;
• Used strain gage instrumentation, modal testing, fatigue software, and redesign studies to solve problem of structural failure in mining trucks;
• Conducted testing and experimental stress analysis to solve structural failure problem of backhoes; and
• Created new vehicle design and improved structural integrity of crawler tractor using modal analysis and system modeling.

One of his final projects for SDRC was to design and oversee the construction of an automotive durability and fatigue laboratory in Detroit.