A Well Balanced Peach

I have a new hero. And a very unexpected one, at that! Recently, I was privileged to hear Dianne Boddy speak to a gathering of young mechanical engineering students. I attended the dinner as the guest of my husband, who is the National Organiser of the event (Warman Competition). I thought it would be another night of conversation over, and around, my head. But since Dianne is an engineering designer, I held some hope of connection. I was not disappointed.

Dianne had humble beginnings, starting work at the age of 19 as a tracer in the engineering department of an international foods processor in Melbourne. She began her talk by saying she hoped her career would inspire the engineering students present to see the breadth of what a design career can offer. Now 77, there was respectful silence as she took the podium, but I am sure that nobody in the room was prepared for what she was about to share.

It seemed tame enough at the start, and even a bit boring, unless designing canning machinery for the food industry makes your heart skip a beat. Even so, it was not missed that by the time she was 23 she was supervising all the design projects for the company! The 20-somethings in the room sat up a bit straighter, and opened their ears and eyes a bit wider.

She now has over 2000 designs to her credit, and around 40 patents. Even her food processing inventions went from black and white industrially mind-numbing photos of hundreds of cans on conveyor belts (at first glance) to full colour fascination as she told us of their purposes – among them peeling skins and stoning peaches at the rate of 400 per minute! The mind boggles. Of course in the back of our minds we know machines like these exist. But we don’t often think about who invents and develops them!

She showed us photos of her home workshop – the kind that would make many men drool with all the jars of bits and pieces! Think scrapbook room, ladies – in chrome!

We listened as she told us of her insatiable curiosity and philosophy to look at every design as a challenge to simplify. “How can the process be streamlined – made faster, made cheaper, made easier?” Can 10 steps be reduced to 8. Could 8 be reduced to 4 and so on. Before and after photos of a processing plant that she redesigned could be rightfully compared to what your 4 year old’s room looks like after they have been playing in it to its appearance after it has been cleaned up for a visiting guest!

We were amazed at this stage, but she was only half way through her career! More treats were to be uncovered in her engineering designer’s journey. The most amusing was her automated sheep shearing device which adjusted for knuckles and other bodily considerations (although I couldn’t help but twitch with the sheep as it was harnessed to be mechanically shorn).

With time running out, she ended with a photo of an assignment she had using “Kinetic Vehicle Suspension” which allows a truck to remain substantially level while its wheels move over a surface with random height variations. The concept was originally invented by a sculptor lecturer and she applied the technology to the Mercedes Unimog. (Pictured is the best example I can find on the internet of how this technology works.)

So, this amazing woman who has traveled from canned peaches to all-terrain vehicles, as well as many other projects including the design of deep sea sonar beacons to position oil rigs (made me wonder if she could have capped the BP valve) and working with the world's largest centrifuge for the US Army, deserves a clap from woman (and men) everywhere. Most notably, she achieved all of this without a university degree!

Her secret? Ask questions. Find mentors. Simplify. And, of course, follow your passion. Thank you Dianne, for the reminders and for your amazing story.