Meet the HARMAN Luxury Audio Team
Name: Matthew Mantle Position/Job Title: Senior Mechanical Design Engineer, Arcam With HARMAN Since December 2017
With Meet The HARMAN Luxury Team, our goal is for you to get to know us better. Each edition we’ll be featuring a different member of the team, and this month it's Matthew Mantle, Senior Mechanical Design Engineer for Arcam.
How would you describe what you do in your current role?
Using SolidWorks 3D CAD to carry out Mechanical Engineering and Design for Arcam and Arcam-based products.
What did you study in school? Did you always imagine yourself doing something like what you’re doing now, or did the fates just take you in that direction?
I enjoyed math and science at school and wanted to be a car designer. I studied Automotive Engineering at University but soon discovered that automotive design engineers are generally only responsible for a small part of a vehicle or component, so that ambition soon passed!
How did your career path lead you to HARMAN?
I started on a Graduate Training Scheme at a supplier of automotive brake and clutch systems in the Midlands. Redundancy led me to another supplier, where I learned Finite Element Stress Analysis techniques.
A geographical move from the Midlands to East Anglia resulted in a job offer at Lotus. However, a visit to the factory was disappointing so I declined the offer. This was fortunate as they were about to enter one of their many ‘bust’ periods and I was likely to have been amongst the redundancies.
Then I got a convenient local job at a farming equipment manufacturer designing conveyors and vegetable processing machines. I learnt how to use AutoCAD (2D) and Inventor (3D), and a great deal about fabrication. A change in working conditions led me to leave, which is when I started at Arcam, now a part of HARMAN.
What is the most important thing you have learned over your career?
Details matter!
Any other advice you would offer people just starting out in this industry?
Learn from all experiences, no matter how small and insignificant they seem.
What are you most proud of in your life?
My wife and family.
When did you first realize you had a passion for music or audio? Was there any one song, band or movie that did it for you?
I bought an Arcam amp when I was at University in the 1990s. I joined the Music Library and borrowed a wide range of CDs. 80s music would probably be my favourite as that is the decade in which I regularly started to listen to music.
What current technology impresses you the most?
Class G amplifier technology.
What's your favorite music genre?
Many and varied.
In closing, please tell us anything else you want us to know about yourself.
I may not be an audiophile but I appreciate the detail refinements that can be made through design excellence.