Robert Kimball

Projects

Personal project

Animatronic Eye Mech

Two SG90 servos: one sweeps the eye 100°, one blinks both lids through a 12-tooth gear pair designed into the eyelids.

~$120k/yr

Hasbro · Games

Vacuum Form Tray Study

Found why vacuum-formed game packaging trays cracked; a 3-part fix saves ~$120k/year.

Buckling SF 1.6 < 2

Team project · ME 4550

BenchPress: Automated Folding Picnic Table

My part of a 5-person design: frame and brace stress, Johnson buckling, Goodman fatigue and bolt sizing, plus all the CAD.

Personal project

Robotic Treasure Chest

Servo-driven custom bevel gears open the lid in sync with a piezo melody.

1–2 h → minutes

Hasbro · Games

Cost Estimation Tool

Board-game cost estimates went from 1–2 hours to a few minutes for 4 engineers; ~$100k/year saved.

Led 5-person team

Hasbro · Games

EPIC Toy Concept

Led a 5-person co-op team; designed a spring-driven rack-and-pinion slide for the functional prototype.

Other builds

• 3D-Printed Guitar Capo Trial-and-error prints to a print-in-place hinge and ratchet; 7 CAD versions.
• Sponge Holder Printed sponge holder that drains into the sink; PLA for prototypes, PETG for the final part.
• Custom Shower Installation Built a shower by myself in 2022 to the Massachusetts plumbing code: framing, plumbing, liner, mortar bed and tile.
• Coursework: Abaqus FEA & Measurement Lab Abaqus stress analysis of a 3D-printed coat hook; Arduino-based data acquisition in the measurement lab.

More CAD & 3D-printed builds

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  Robot Arm

  76.8 × 36 × 106.4 mm; 8 parts

  Tried to build a mechanical arm from only friction-fit 3D-printed parts, with bands driven by the motor from my Arduino kit.

  Tolerance test prints: motor housing bore Ø22.0 → Ø22.4 mm, plus smaller-tolerance versions of the motor arm and band spool, and a test gripper.

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  Sous vide screw + holder

  Screw 16 × 64 × 16 mm; holder about 50 × 85 × 87 mm

  My sous vide's screw broke, so I recreated it in CAD and 3D-printed a replacement.

  Two CAD versions of the screw; the holder exists only as a print file.

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  Chip clip

  20 × 41 × 86 mm; 2 parts

  Recreated a chip clip from my desk to practice CAD and test my 3D printer.

  Top and bottom halves on a Ø5 mm hinge; the bottom half has 2 versions.

• Open larger image

  Guitar capo

  64 × 10 × 60 mm assembly; 2 parts

  I didn't have a guitar capo but had a 3D printer, so I tried to make one.

  7 CAD versions (v1–v6 and v8).

Experience

1. Project Engineer Co-op · Hasbro (Fashion, Preschool, Disney)

   Jun 2026 – Present · Pawtucket, RI

   • Own engineering for 10 My Little Pony items (~100k units each); write the Universal Feasibility Specs that launch them with overseas teams and present each item at all 3 stage gates
   • Review ~50 injection-molded figure samples a month in daily sample reviews for screen accuracy, function, and molding defects (short shots, flash, sink, gate and burn marks); assess overseas tooling feedback such as sharp tools and undercuts
   • Suggested a DFMA change for a new collectible: a thick ABS base frame for the common tier and stacked PVC layers for higher tiers, so every tier lines up the same way and assembles only one way
   • Review supplier quotes and push back on rates over target cost; automate daily sample-review agendas and quote filing with Claude; built cost-estimating tools that connect to Hasbro platforms and upload estimates automatically

2. Project Engineer Co-op · Hasbro (Games, Play-Doh, NERF)

   Jun 2025 – Dec 2025 · Pawtucket, RI

   • Found the root cause of cracking in vacuum-formed game packaging trays; new standards (larger corner radii, thinner gauge, carton corner inserts) save $120k/year
   • Built a cost-estimating tool (Power Apps, Power Query, SharePoint) from a database of past quotes; cut estimates for 4 engineers from 1–2 hours to minutes, saving ~$100k/year
   • Led a 5-person co-op team on a new toy concept; designed a spring-loaded rack-and-pinion slide mechanism and fit salvaged electronics into 3D-printed PLA prototypes
   • After tariff-driven factory moves put NERF items behind schedule, worked with the PM to rank urgent items and re-route projects to other vendors

   Case studies: Vacuum Form Tray Study · Cost Estimation Tool · EPIC Toy Concept

3. Project Engineer Co-op · Beacon Consulting Group

   Jul 2024 – Dec 2024 · Medford, MA

   • Analyzed cost-to-complete on commercial construction projects; wrote a VBA macro that inserts and captions site photos in reports

4. Junior Designer & CAD Operator · Davey Engineering & Construction

   Jun 2021 – Dec 2023 · Canton, MA

   • Modeled fire protection, HVAC, and plumbing systems in 2D/3D (Bentley OpenBuildings) for ~30 building projects
   • Ran fire protection hydraulic calculations; led weekly on-site coordination meetings with engineers and foremen

Education & skills