About Kyle Hill and Protodyne

A native of Illinois and former sprint car racer, Kyle Hill spent his younger years racing and learning the welding trade. While still in high school, he attended Danville Area Community College, where he took welding classes in order to gain experience for a future in engineering.

Hill relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2004, where he went to school at UNC Charlotte to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering.  Hill would accomplish his goal and graduate in 2009.  While in school, he worked as a machinist, performing manual mill and lathe machining and working with detailed blueprints to assemble complex machinery for the food industry.

Hill would gain plenty more experience in the engineering and machining fields before starting Protodyne.

He worked as a test operator for the John Deere Southeast Engineering Center, where he worked closely with test engineers to monitor vehicle life cycles. He also was involved with fatigue and stress testing using hydraulic cylinders and actuators and testing of electronics for cycle life and failures.

5-axis CNC machining
Inside Protodyne's shop shortly after delivery of a new 5-axis CNC machine in 2023

For three years between December 2008 and December 2011, Hill worked at the Electric Power Research Institute.  Duties ranged from developing test equipment and procedures for live working tools and prototype development of wireless sensors for overhead transmission monitoring to project management and writing detailed reports for members.

Before starting Protodyne, Hill worked at Duke Energy, where he served for a little over a year as a Mechanical / Electrical Engineer.

Hill opened Protodyne in June of 2010, first as a part-time business while continuing to work at Duke Energy. He went full time with Protodyne in early 2013 and business has blossomed since.  Protodyne serves clients across the Concord and Charlotte areas, specializing as a full-service manual machine shop with three Haas CNC machines. Hill and Protodyne's specialities center around mechanical development and design, 3, 4 and 5-axis CNC machining, fabricating and TIG and MIG welding.

In February 2021, Protodyne moved from its original location to a new 4,000-square-foot building within the same business park.

Click here to view Kyle's Linkedin profile!