Founder & CEO — Kavanagh Industries LLC

Shaun
Kavanagh

Clinton Township, Michigan  ·  Est. 1996

30 years in precision engineering across automotive, military, biomedical, and aerospace. First-named inventor on a US autonomous vehicle patent. Founder of a sovereign manufacturing technology company five miles from the Detroit Arsenal — and now, a patent holder in his own name.

30
Years in Industry
'87
CAD Since
5
US Patent Filings
4
Generations
Verified Credentials
◆
Engineering Designer, Grade 7C General Motors — Direct, Warren MI
Aug 2014 – Feb 2025
◆
First-Named Inventor US 2019/0344686 A1
Removable Rotating Seating System (AV)
◆
Granted US Patent US 11,001,174 B2 — May 11, 2021
Double Sided Cushion, AV/Shared-Ride
◆
USPTO Provisional Patent #63/991,057 — Filed Feb 25, 2026
Kavanagh Industries — RigidCore
The Story Behind the Company

Four generations of people who build things.

In 1931, Thomas Kavanagh earned a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Detroit — one of the first in his family to do so. He had immigrated from Ireland, put himself through school, and built a business with his hands: The Wood Shop. It ran for years. Then industrial scale arrived, and it was gone. Not because Thomas wasn't skilled. Because the system wasn't built for people like him to keep what they built.

Three generations later, Kavanagh Industries exists as the direct answer to what happened to that shop. A sovereign, vertically integrated manufacturing technology company where the Kavanagh family owns the machines, the data, the IP, and the legacy.

That's not a marketing statement. It's the architecture of every product KI builds.

I
1931
Thomas Kavanagh
ME degree, University of Detroit. Built The Wood Shop. Immigrant, engineer, craftsman. The business that industrial scale erased — and the reason KI exists.
II
~1987
Shaun's Father — GM Design Manager
Put AutoCAD in front of his 9-year-old son. That moment set everything in motion.
III
1996 – Present
Shaun P. Kavanagh
30 years from tooling detailer to GM inventor to KI founder. The career that built the knowledge base for everything KI makes.
IV
Now
Emily, Liam, Kathryn & Connor
COO, Director of Technology, Director of Digital Art, Vault Librarian. Every pillar of KI has a Kavanagh in it.
Professional Background

Built across every industry.

The range of work that informs KI's engineering credibility — from robot bases to biomedical implants, military vehicles to jet turbines, and ultimately autonomous vehicle innovation at GM's AVD group.

1996 — First job, first Monday after high school
AutoCAD Detailer
Steller Engineering — Michigan
Tooling AutoCAD
Tooling drawing changes and detail work using AutoCAD. The job that turned nine years of practice on his father's IBM into a paycheck. Career start: Day 1 after graduation.
1997 – 1999
Tooling Designer
MSX International — Madison Heights, MI
Automotive Tooling
Checking fixtures, ABB & Fanuc robot base design for GM plants, robot dress standards and weld gun configurations.
1999 – 2001
Product Designer
General Motors / RCO Engineering — Pontiac, MI
GM Automotive
GMT355 (Colorado/Canyon) design concepts — liaison between Isuzu Japan and GM. CGS-to-Unigraphics migration: resurfacing legacy parts from scratch in NX.
2001 – 2005
Senior Product Designer — Body Interiors & Electrical
Intier / Hawtal Whiting / Wagon Automotive — Pontiac, MI
Automotive Electrical
H3 Hummer I/P, console, and garnish from studio surface to production. Colorado/Canyon I/P with sheet metal cross-car beam. I/P harness routing.
2005 – 2008
Senior Electrical Designer — Trucking
Navistar Inc. / Miller Consulting — Fort Wayne, IN
Military Electrical Trucking
Engine, chassis, and IP harness routing using UG Routing. Wire sizing, fusing, relay specification. Military MRAP seating and electrical design.
2008
Senior Product Designer — Biomedical
DePuy Orthopedics / Miller Consulting — Warsaw, IN
Biomedical GD&T
Knee inserts, femurs, and trays using fully constrained sketches and expressions. 2D GD&T drawings per ASME Y14.5-1994. Rollback and kinetic optimization studies.
2008 – 2009
Lead Product Design Engineer
Navistar / Populus Group — Fort Wayne, IN
Military Automotive
Ford 650/750 body interior (overhead console, B-pillar lower). Lonestar Harley-Davidson edition — shifter, seats, door panels. Military MRAP body design.
2012 – 2013
Senior Product Design Engineer
Miller Consulting — Noblesville, IN
Military Aerospace Ortho
Military and commercial jet turbine engine components. Military amphibious vehicle transmission. Custom orthopedic surgical instruments (knees, hips, trauma). NX 4–7.5 / SolidWorks.
2013 – 2014
Senior Designer — Mechanisms Group
General Motors / RCO Engineering — Warren, MI
GM Interior
Complex moving systems for vehicle interiors and consoles. Motion simulation to validate kinematics of interior mechanisms. NX 8.
August 2014 – February 2025  ·  10.5 Years
Engineering Designer, Grade 7C — Advanced Vehicle Development
General Motors Direct — Warren, MI (30001 Van Dyke Ave)
GM Direct AVD Seating AVD Console 3 Patent Filings Autonomous Vehicles
Seating and Console — Advanced Vehicle Development groups. Full-size and sport vehicle platforms. Occupant packaging, spatial claim, innovative mechanism design. Transferred to AVD Innovation Group — co-inventor and first-named inventor on three US patent filings in autonomous vehicle seating systems. All patents assigned to GM Global Technology Operations LLC.

CAD since 1987 · AutoCAD · NX / Unigraphics (primary, v9–NX8+) · SolidWorks · Pro/E · CATIA · GD&T ASME Y14.5-1994/2009/2011 · Motion Simulation · UG Routing (Electrical Harness) · Injection / vacuum / blow molded plastics · Metal castings · Machined parts · Stamped parts · Weldments

Intellectual Property

Patent record — GM AVD Innovation Group.

Three US patent filings from Shaun's work inside General Motors' Advanced Vehicle Development group, all in autonomous and shared-ride vehicle seating systems. One granted US patent. All assigned to GM Global Technology Operations LLC. Public record — verifiable at USPTO.gov.

Patent illustration — Removable Rotating Seating System
↓  Download Full Patent PDF
US 2019/0344686 A1 · 18 pages
★ First-Named Inventor
US 2019/0344686 A1
Removable Rotating Seating System
Filed May 14, 2018  ·  Published Nov 14, 2019
Seating system for autonomous vehicles, taxis, buses, and trains. Fixed base + rotating component moves between seating, stowed, and tool-free removal positions. Kavanagh is the primary inventor.
Patent illustration — Double Sided Cushion with Child Harness
↓  Download Granted Patent PDF
US 11,001,174 B2 · Granted May 11, 2021
✓ Granted Patent — May 11, 2021
US 11,001,174 B2  /  US 2020/0139857 A1
Double Sided Cushion with Provision for Child Five Point Harness and Booster
Filed Nov 5, 2018  ·  Granted May 11, 2021
Reversible seat cushion for shared-ride and autonomous vehicles. One side supports an adult; flip it over and it becomes a booster with an integrated 5-point child harness stored inside the cushion.
Patent illustration — Seat Shell Formed by Additive Manufacturing
↓  Download Full Patent PDF
US 2019/0061581 A1 · 22 pages
Co-Inventor · Application
US 2019/0061581 A1
Seat Shell Formed by Additive Manufacturing
Filed Aug 25, 2017  ·  Published Feb 28, 2019
3D-printed vehicle seat shell with conduits for fluid, electricity, and force built directly into the structure. Airbag housing, inflatable bladders, embedded sensors — all formed during the print process. The 2017 patent that KI's own additive capability now puts to work.
Patent application — Double Sided Cushion with Child Harness
↓  Download Application PDF
US 2020/0139857 A1 · Published May 7, 2020
Co-Inventor · Published Application
US 2020/0139857 A1
Double Sided Cushion with Provision for Child Five Point Harness and Booster
Filed Nov 5, 2018  ·  Published May 7, 2020
The published application for the granted patent US 11,001,174 B2. Same invention — a reversible seat cushion for shared-ride and autonomous vehicles with an integrated child 5-point harness system stored inside the cushion.
Three GM patent filings assigned to GM Global Technology Operations LLC, Detroit, MI. Plus USPTO Provisional Patent #63/991,057 — Kavanagh Industries LLC, filed February 25, 2026. All GM inventions searchable at USPTO Patent Public Search.
From Patent to Shop Floor

He filed a 3D printing patent in 2017.
KI is printing parts in 2026.

In August 2017, Shaun co-filed a patent with GM's AVD group for a seat shell built entirely through additive manufacturing — conduits for air, electricity, and force integrated directly into the 3D-printed structure, eliminating the need to route cables and tubes after the fact. The idea was to use the print process itself as the assembly step.

That patent was filed because Shaun understood something most designers at the time didn't: additive manufacturing isn't just a faster way to prototype. It's a fundamentally different way to design parts. Complexity is free. Integration is free. The constraints that define conventional manufacturing don't apply.

KI now has that capability in-house. A production 3D printer runs in the KI workshop — used for rapid prototyping of RigidCore components, bracket fabrication, fixture development, and client parts. The same thinking that informed the GM patent — design for the process, not around it — informs how KI approaches additive work today.

If you need functional prototype parts, custom brackets, jigs, fixtures, or short-run production components, KI's additive capability is available as part of RigidEngineering services. Contact shaun@kavanaghind.com to discuss a project.

August 2017 — GM AVD Innovation Group
Patent Filed: Seat Shell Formed by Additive Manufacturing
Co-inventor on a US patent for 3D-printed vehicle seat shells with integrated conduits, inflatable bladders, embedded sensors, and airbag housings — all formed during the print process. Application No. 15/687,130.
↓
2025–2026 — KI Workshop, Clinton Township MI
In-House 3D Print Capability — Operational
KI applies the same design-for-process philosophy — building function directly into structure during the print, rather than assembling it after — to RigidCore component work, fixture development, and client parts.
↓
Coming — RigidCore Machine Line
Additive as a Pillar, Not a Tool
KI's long-term manufacturing roadmap includes additive as a native capability alongside CNC — not an afterthought. Hybrid manufacturing, where print and machine work together, is the direction the AVD patent was pointing toward in 2017.
Why Kavanagh Industries Exists

The answer to what happened
to The Wood Shop.

"Thomas Kavanagh built something with his hands and his mind. Industrial scale took it. KI is built so that can't happen again."

Kavanagh Industries is a sovereign manufacturing technology company. Sovereign means the customer owns their machines, their data, their processes, and their output. No cloud dependency. No platform lock-in. No outside system that can be switched off or sold out from under you.

Every KI product — from RigidVault to RigidCore to RigidPulse — is architected around that principle. It isn't a marketing position. It's the technical specification that drives every design decision.

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