Parker’s Electromechanical and Drives employee profile: Rick Veverka

Title: Assembly lead — specialty products

Background: Began work for Parker at its original Irwin machine shop for the Daedal brand; he then migrated to a customization department to apply a wide-reaching skillset in assembly.

Years with Parker’s Electromechanical and Drives: 29 years

Day-to-day: These days, I do a lot of work on the 412 Series product line — this is a line of electromechanical positioning systems that Parker has offered for some time. I also contribute to specialty setups with belt drives and — like today, for example — I’m assembling a custom direct-drive actuator for a high-vacuum environment in the semiconductor industry. Here, I wear gloves to prevent deposition of any oil on interior surfaces during assembly. I put the actuator together on a laboratory-grade granite worktable to maintain accuracy. So when I’m railing such a product, I bolt it down to a granite table and add the square-rail bearing as well as any sensors — such as encoders, tape scales, limit switches, and gauges, for example. This maintains assembly precision — which is especially important for the actuators we assemble destined for semiconductor and aerospace installations.

Take on Parker culture: We’re part of the team that focuses on custom products with the lowest volumes, so we’re lucky in that we’re not doing the same thing day in and day out. Often we’re building one-off products or prototypes of a product to test viability before a production order begins. My extensive background and training (for becoming a journeyman machinist) give me insight into useful techniques for these high-precision assemblies.

Take on Parker capabilities: Our integration is our strength. For example, years ago we were getting runout during machining on some of our very long round rails — as they were sitting on fixtures and going out of tolerance. So we in assembly helped quantify that problem and now this plant uses other workholding to eliminate the issue.

Read the profile of Bob Germanoski and Brian Handerhan who work at the Irwin facility — or return to the main Parker Hannifin story.