Welcome to Profile Services
Engineering Support Services
Specializing in
GD&T and
Intellectual Properties
Welcome to Profile Services
Our goal is to provide specialized engineering support services to our clients.
Small, Medium and even Large Enterprises often have intermittent support needs that they cannot source internally. Profile Services has established a reputation for value-added support services in the areas of application and training of design documentation through GD&T, and for the development and defense of intellectual properties.
Jim Sykes - Background
Jim has breadth and depth of experience across a variety of mechanical engineering and manufacturing fields. Everything has to tie back to the basics of mechanical engineering, otherwise it's just opinions
Education
Master of Science in Biosystems Engineering / Engineering Education
University of Manitoba, Winnipeg. (2023)
Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering (B.Eng Mech degree, Concentration in Management Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa. (1993)
Knowledge & Skillset Foundation
Manufacturing and Design knowledge from Blow Mold Tooling (1972) Ltd., in Mississauga, Ontario.
Standardization, Leadership, Product Development, Field Service, GD&T Implementation experiences from Bolton Mold Operations at Husky Injection Molding Systems Ltd., Bolton, Ontario.
GD&T Training and Coaching from Tec-Ease, Inc., USA.
Industry Standards
Ten-year involvement with the International Society of Beverage Technologists (ISBT) and affiliation with the Closure Manufacturers' Association (CMA).
Ten-plus year involvement with American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME):
- Y14.41-2012 Digital Product Definition Data Practices
- Y14.3-2012 Orthographic and Pictorial Views
- Y14.46-2017 (Draft Standard) Product Definition for Additive Manufacturing
- Y14.5-2009 and -2018 Dimensioning and Tolerancing (contributor)
Teaching in Industry
Since 2006, Jim has provided GD&T training to designers, machinists, inspectors, and purchasing agents around the globe.
Throughout all the global locations and multiple industries, client commentary was consistent; university-educated engineering graduates were strong on theory but lacked practical design skills.
There were several common themes;
1. Basic drafting skills had disappeared.
2. Drawing checking skills had disappeared.
3. Conventional manufacturing processes were not understood.
4. There was no understanding of tolerancing.
5. There was little practical understanding of materials.
Teaching in Academia
2024, and Jim is back in the class! This time, at uOttawa, teaching a first year engineering design course. It's good to be back in Ottawa, and even better to be back teaching with passion about engineering design!
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As an Engineer-in-Residence (2016-2021), University of Manitoba, Jim offered Advanced Graphical Communications (AGC) to a mixed class of engineering students and industry participants.
To develop practical GD&T application skills, students had to learn appropriate drafting and drawing checking practices; this addressed the first two industry laments (see Teaching in Industry).
As an EiR, Jim also advised capstone design teams and undergraduate theses, co-curricular design competition teams, and inter-discipline case competition teams.
Throughout those activities, students repeatedly advised Jim about their concerns regarding their lack of practical design knowledge and skills.
During the first summer of the Covid-19 pandemic, Jim created and lead an eight-week Mechanical Design Skills Workshop (MDSW), integrating CAD design and detailing, use of Machinery’s Handbook and ASME standards for fits and finishes, and other design aspects that were not included in the undergraduate mechanical engineering program. The online MDSW workshop was attended by veteran engineers, newly graduated and undergrad students. These elements addressed the remaining industry and student concerns about their knowledge and practical skillsets (see Teaching in Industry).
Patents and Publications
Along the way, Jim developed several strategic technologies, being primary inventor on several Husky patents, including four published US patents, two US patent applications and a World Intellectual Property Organization patent application. Jim was also a named inventor on a US Provisional Patent Application for a proprietary closure design developed for a Profile Services client.
Jim has several published articles in corporate and industry trade magazines, and has authored ISBT publications and presentations. The www.threadspecs.com website, originally published by Jim, was introduced as a way to distribute voluntary standard bottle thread finishes to the entire beverage industry via an open and no-cost channel. The threadspecs.com site is the preferred international resource for sourcing finishes, and the TFRSC Nomenclature and Finish Features cards, created by Jim and distributed by the ISBT, have set the standard for terminologies in the beverage bottling industry worldwide.
In 2021, Jim contributed a chapter on dimensioning and tolerancing in Injection Mold Design Handbook, by Bruce Catoen.