Paul Forgy - Mechanical & Industrial Design

I have mechanical and industrial design experience including: electromechanical, mechanical, and sheet-metal. I have designed and built many hardware components for simulation. These designs are functional, economical, and robust. In addition to my design experience, I have hands on experience in the following complimentary areas: CAD, fabrication, manual and CNC machining, MIG & TIG welding, model construction and painting, auto repair, restoration & maintenance.

Some examples of things I've designed:



	Paddle Shifters

While common in Formula 1, at the time we built this unit in 2000, steering wheel displays were just starting to be used in champ car racing. The display has a gear indicator, seven-digit backlit LCD display, rpm bars, and warning/status lights. It's pretty cool when you're racing, and the displays and LED's are lit up. I worked with Eric Claypool to make sure the electronics he designed would fit. The unit contains two stacked printed circuit boards inside a machined aluminum housing.

Digital Dash


	This force-feedback steering wheel was used in all our racing simulators. It is adjustable for 270 or 350 degrees of rotation. It has a ton of torque, around 25 ft-lbs--considerably more than consumer feedback steering units like the Microsoft wheel.

Force-Feedback Steering

I designed these pedals for open wheel racing simulators. The throttle and brake use the same design, with different gas-springs and rubber cushions.

Pedals



	5-Speed shifter


Here is a 4-speed shifter I designed for stock-car racing simulators. The stick is spring loaded from side to side, and has detents for forward and back gear selection. The design was constrained to off-the-shelf parts and custom, .025" steel, CNC waterjet parts only.


	Mini Racer simulator concept (2002)

I did some concept work on an attraction based on the original Mini-Cooper. It's fun size and shape make it a natural for a full scale attraction. All the attractions components are modeled in 3d.


	This is a second generation attraction/game/simulator control system. I refined the design to reduce materials and labor cost, time to manufacture and repair. Circuit board design by Eric Claypool and Mike Pusatare.

Electronics system