Conveyors (PDF)

Patrick McGuire has been in the material handling industry for more than 20 years. He has a BS degree in computer integrated manufacturing systems and his professional engineering license for industrial engineering. He started with a very small conveyor manufacturer in upstate New York, J & S Conveyors, where he was the Engineering Manager. They designed and built a wide variety of conveyors. They manufactured tabletop chain conveyors, flat belt conveyors, heavy unit load conveyors, and troughed belt conveyors.

After J & S, he went to work for Rapistan, the world's largest manufacturer of material handling systems. Rapistan has since been bought by Siemens AG. Rapistan specialized in unit handling, primarily distribution systems. McGuire was involved with the office that also specialized in-process manufacturing systems. They built one-of-a-kind conveyors and systems for giants such as Corning, Kodak, Xerox, General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler. He worked as a senior systems engineer and a project manager.

After 10 years of custom product and system design, he took a position with the products group, where he worked on such things as the high-speed divert for airport baggage and then became the product manager for the heavy unit load product line. In that position McGuire led a group of engineers in designing, documenting, and selling a full line of pallet handling conveyors. He has since worked as the Director of Product Engineering for American Ironhorse Motorcycles, and the Director of Manufacturing and Technology for Transnorm System, a specialty conveyor manufacturer.

Currently, McGuire is the Manager of Engineering Services for Glidepath, which is leading a movement of business and engineering systems integration and automation. As a member of CEMA, he co-authored or edited several chapters of the new CEMA Application Guide for Unit Handling Conveyors.