Request Expert

Expert is a professional chemist with 35+ years experience in academics, commercial, aerospace, electronics, and automotive-related industries. A hands-on consultant on various aspects of engineering materials, their applications and processing, with extensive experience in materials and process engineering, product research and development, validation testing, and laboratory management.

Selected areas of expertise:

 Materials and Process Issues and Failures
 Validation of Alternate Materials & Processes

 Adhesive Bonding of Dissimilar Materials
 Adhesive Bonding in Miniature Electronic Devices

 Metal-to-Metal & Film-to-Metal Laminates & Processes
 Variability Reductions in Products & Processes

 Applications Development, Testing, and Validation
 Materials & Process Specifications

 Product & Process Failure Modes & Effects Analysis (FMEA)
 Document Review & Technical Writing


Selected areas of industry experience:

Expert was Process Engineering Manager employed by a manufacturer and worldwide supplier of coated metals and adhesively-bonded metallic laminates and composites for brake noise control and sealing/gasket applications. Responsibilities including:

Held responsibility for bringing materials-oriented approaches to optimizing processing parameters to improve product quality control, FMEA, product performance characteristics, variability reduction, and cost reduction. Supervised testing laboratory for manufacturing operations.

Expert was Director of Product Development employed by a manufacturer and supplier of coated metals and adhesively-bonded metallic laminates and composites for automotive, electronics, appliances, and other markets. Responsibilities including:

Oversaw product development projects, including consumer and industrial, electrical and electronic, and automotive applications. Held responsibility for new product development, product improvements, qualification of alternative raw materials, transitioning new materials from laboratory to production, FMEA and corrective actions, and support to manufacturing, purchasing, sales and marketing.

Expert was Engineering Laboratory Manager employed by a major defense company – aircraft and missiles – for design, prototyping, testing, and manufacturing of engineering components and systems. Responsibilities including:

Lead multi-disciplinary staff of 50+ scientists, engineers, and technicians. Held accountability for professional development of staff members, managing department budget, capital equipment purchases, and maintenance of 21,000 square foot facility. Involved in materials science group specializing in the development of materials for very high temperature applications and fabrication and testing of prototype, fiber-reinforced, composite components.

Adhesive Bonding of Sub-miniature Electronic Devices to Dissimilar Materials - A Case Study.

At issue in the 26-week project summarized here were adhesive bonds used to attach sub-miniature electronic microphones to plastic fixtures that allow the assembly to be incorporated into application-specific packaging. Specifically, the microphone cases are made of stainless steel and the mounting fixtures are glass-filled Nylon. These devices are in actual service for many years and are continuously exposed to high humidity and a temperature of ~95 °F. The specific goal of the project was to identify alternative adhesives that would significantly enhance bond strengths and would be less susceptible to humidity. The result would be longer service life in current applications and development of new applications.
Optimizing Cure Process for Special Silicone-based Pressure Sensitive Adhesive - A Case Study.

In the process optimization study at hand, six distinct tasks led to successful production of commercial material involving a partially cured adhesive that did not exhibit oozing during stamping into shims, storage prior to use by the customer, or during bonding operations at the customer. The tasks:

 Laboratory-scale testing to establish time/temperature profiles to yield the non-oozing adhesive.
 Establish concentration of un-reacted cure agent using Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC).
 Production-scale trials to validate the time/temperature profile for the non-oozing adhesive.
 Establish concentration of un-reacted cure agent in production material using DSC.
 Experimentally record the time/temperature profile through the entire sequence of solvent removal, increasing temperature, and cure reaction.
 Complete documentation of processing parameters and control methods.

This case study is one aspect of “Materials for Noise and Vibration Control: What Causes Product Variability?” published by the Society of Automotive Engineers as Paper #2006-01-3226, October 2006.
VEHICLE BRAKE NOISE SHIMS: A TUTORIAL FOR CONTINUOUS PRODUCT IMPROVEMENTS - A Case Study.

Expected performance for these layered assemblies of polymer-based coatings and supporting substrates is based on two factors: (1) the composition, quality, and durability of each coating; and (2) the composition, quality, and durability of each material-to-material interface.

This is the second of two papers about this type of material for noise and vibration control. The objective is to provide readers with an overview of issues affecting design/development of products for controlling vehicle brake noise. Taking the format of a tutorial, it is intended for anyone involved in their design, manufacture, or use. It provides basic information and numerous references that will support evaluating potential failure modes and their effects in relation to choices of materials and provides an appendix with generic root causes.

Unwanted performance variations in materials for noise and vibration control can be minimized. The viscoelastic damping materials discussed in this paper is multi-layered combinations of various chemical coatings and supporting substrates. In designing and producing these products, there are many opportunities to affect the physical and chemical properties of the interfaces and coatings, for better or worse.

Initially, this requires a detailed understanding of the application-specific requirements for the engineering component made from these materials. Based on these requirements, appropriate selections of raw materials – polymers, additives, metal substrate, paints, adhesives, etc. – can be decided as part of the design/development of new products. The product design phase must consider manufacturing processes capable of converting the raw materials into products with consistency.