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Expert has 25 years of engineering experience working on regional, national and global projects including the design, engineering, construction and commissioning of numerous residential, commercial and industrial facilities. He has provided subject matter expertise in engineering, engineering management, facility design and operations, manufacturing, equipment specifications, process technology, systems technology, fire and life safety, maintenance, reliability, mechanical integrity, quality assurance, failure analyses, investigations including fires and explosions, process safety management (PSM), supply chain and more. In legal and related matters, he has worked on numerous construction schedule delay, construction defect, engineering standard of care, building envelope, water infiltration, electrical distribution, insulation, stucco, concrete, structural, HVAC, refrigeration, causation, flood, fire, liability, accidents, injuries, product liability amongst other matters. He experience in matters related to and/or supported developers, fabricators, municipalities, townships, universities, hospitals, hotels, supermarkets, condominium complexes (great and small), manufacturing plants, process plants, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), warehouses, union (bargaining) environments, distributors, constructors, insurance carriers, consumers, facility and real estate operations, homeowners, injured parties, individuals, and various other stakeholders.

His expertise includes the design and engineering of commercial, industrial, manufacturing, institutional, and residential venues, as well as efforts relating to services and products used in and around these facilities. Expert has worked in numerous business and industries segments including electronics, safety, construction, building materials, polymers, plastics, instrumentation manufacturing, explosives, refineries, pipelines, petrochemicals, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, colleges, athletic facilities, textiles, coatings, paint, resins, food storage, biosciences, supermarkets, inks, pigments, automotive, agricultural, transportation, nuclear, healthcare, food processing/nutrition, retail, distributors, pulp and paper, packaging, utilities, apparel, and Research and Development centers and businesses.

Expert is also a subject matter expert in commercial and industrial engineering standards and applicable codes including ASHRAE, ASME, NIST, NFPA, NBIC, ASTM, SAE, LEED, AWWA, ASCE, GMP, ISA, UL, IBC, IRC, OSHA, ANSI, BOCA, and EPA Regulations. Expert has developed technical expertise and provided training on numerous engineering standards, chillers, compressed air, nitrogen, refrigeration, piping, plumbing, heat exchangers, cooling towers, motors, gasoline engines, pumps, blowers, fans, compressors, turbines, fuel leaks, diesel engines, natural gas systems, distillate oil systems, thermodynamics, water treatment, steam systems, boilers, furnaces, combustion, emissions (NOx, SOx, particulate matter PM), chimneys, fire and life safety, incineration, piping failures, process sewers, sanitary sewers, distillation, recycling, power, polymer extrusion, utilities, energy conservation, wastewater, sewers, underpinning, environmental, safety, HVAC, project management, and product development. Expert has also engaged with local, state, and government officials and agencies regarding numerous matters over his commensurate years of experience.

Forensic Consulting Experience

Supermarket Heating Ventilation, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration (HVACR) Matter – Florida - Provided an expert witness field inspection and investigation of relevant HVACR and mechanical systems causing wet conditions and a personal injury. Evaluated the relevant equipment and drawings, took field measurements and guided counsel regarding case strengths and weaknesses. Provided recommended deposition questions to counsel yielding a negotiated settlement favorable to our client.

Warehouse Distribution Facility – Maryland - Evaluated a $10M (million) claim relating to purported construction defect claims by the 600,000 sq. ft. facility owner against the facility construction contractor and an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) relating to installed infrastructure in the facility. Developed and provided an expert opinion and expert report regarding the analysis of the purported defects and a proposed repair solution to correct said defects. Reviewed numerous reports regarding the matter including structural, repair/maintenance, operations related etc. to determine opinion. The matter settled favor-ably for our client prior to federal court trial.
Psychiatric Hospital Facility – North Carolina – Evaluated a $28M (million) construction claim by the general contractor against a hospital facility concerning a $100M facility construction project. Developed an expert opinion and report for general construction issues, constructability, design revisions, and corresponding delay analysis for mechanical, HVAC, electrical, smoke and fire, structural, security and building automation systems. Reviewed findings with multi – discipline experts for mediation, leading to a negotiated settlement favorable to our client.

Municipal Building/Facility - Northern NJ - Evaluated and provided expert witness mediation testimony regarding a $3M construction delay claim by general contractor against municipal facility concerning an $8M renovation and new construction project. Analysis included review of plaintiff’s claim, project schedules, critical path & time impact considerations, delays, pay applications, contract terms, change orders, consequential & liquidated damages, lien and bond issues, correspondence and numerous other project documents. Guided mediation to quickly develop a very favorable settlement for our client.
NJ Public School Building(s) – Central NJ – Investigated a $1M claim regarding the facility’s electrical distribution system retrofit construction project. Identified standard of care issues stemming from defects in the construction documents. Provided case strengths and weaknesses and expert witness analysis leading to favorable pretrial settlement for our client.

Multiple Construction Defect Claims, PA – Pennsylvania Locations – Reviewed and evaluated multiple construction defect claims including construction materials, building envelope elements, flood / water damage of residential/commercial construction buildings considering or in active litigation. Performed site visits and inspections during tear-offs and provided forensic analyses of expert reports, materials & methods of construction, construction documents, building code requirements, and humidity infiltration. Developed expert witness materials for the relevant legal team for use in arbitration / mediation hearings.

New Construction Flooring Defect - Downington, PA
Investigated a new flooring construction defect matter stemming from water damage / flooding to deter-mine the magnitude and corrective action to properly repair. Developed an expert opinion based on relevant industry flooring standards and construction expertise leading to a negotiated settlement favorable to our client.

Forensics Consulting Work-in-Progress

2023 – Plastics Warehouse / Distribution Center Condensation, Insulation, Indoor Air Quality, HVAC, Architectural and Engineering matter
2023 – Condominium Complex Alleged Construction, Utilities, Underground Piping, MEP, Plumbing Defect Matter
2023 – Commercial Building Construction Defect Matter 2023 – Water Infiltration / Water Damaged Insulation Matter
2023 – Multi-Discipline Construction Defect and Cost Overrun Matter, Performed Court Testimony
2023 – Fully Flooded Property Matter due to Frozen / Burst Water Supply Line
2023 – Commercial Steam Distribution System Operations Matter including Injury
2022 – International Trade Commission (ITC) Matter – Polymer Resin Manufacturing Facility Construction Delay / Completeness Analysis
2022 – Plastic Products Warehouse / Distribution Center Alleged Fabrication Defect Matter & Analysis, portions HVAC related.
2022 – Church Construction Related Defect Matter Relating to Building Envelope, Structural and Roofing Failures
2021 – Industrial Manufacturing Facility Standard of Care Matter, Construction Defect, Construction Delay
2021 – State Highway Construction Project Defect & Delay Matter
2021 – New Construction Hotel Facility HVAC Project Management / Construction Defect Related Matter
2021 – Condominium Complex Construction Defect Matter
2021 – Structural Matter Relating to Alleged Construction Defects and a Collapsing Structure
2021 – Multiple Patent Infringement / Licensing Matters, Ongoing
2020 - State Highway Construction Project Defect & Delay Matter – Multiple Locations

Commercial & Industrial Investigations

Research and Development Labs Buildings – Delaware – Researched and provided mitigating efforts for several electrical substation failures (500 KVA to 38 MVA) including fires and explosions. Performed Root Cause Analysis (RCA) to determine contributing factors including oil issues, poor maintenance, age, insulator breakdown, and wildlife intrusion. Developed preventative maintenance measures, design alterations, life expectancy and replacement criteria for substation capital planning. Performed consequence analyses including financial and personnel safety profiles to minimize risk.

Industrial Park/R&D Center – Delaware – Evaluated numerous process systems with wastewater environmental excursions. Led process engineering efforts for the facility to manage the issue, reducing process excursions from 14 annual occurrences down to 1 occurrence, and avoided expected capex of $8M to $15M for a planned infrastructure project to correct the problem.

Agricultural Research and Processing Facility – Newark, DE – Investigated the catastrophic failure of a flue gas recirculation (FGR) fan on a high–pressure steam boiler with near miss potential, including materials of construction and metallurgical analyses. Found traces of sodium on the carbon steel fan wheel along with corrosion and cracks, both macro and minor. The root cause analysis identified tube failures as the sodium source causing boiler water to introduce to the air side of the combustion system. A stainless-steel fan wheel was specified for the new design to prevent future failures. The expedited project prevented facility downtime risk estimated at a $500K daily value.

Office & Research Facility – Delaware – Reviewed a near miss water hammer incident, where poor condensate removal during a steam system startup forced a slug to burst a valve assembly causing high pressure steam emission in a mechanical room where personnel were in general proximity.

Pulp and Paper Company – Chester, PA – Investigated structural and civil engineering of concrete foundations in the manufacturing facility underneath large paper processing equipment to identify causes of vibration. Performed vibration analyses on rotating equipment and on concrete structure, isolating the problem areas to the lower foundation section. Devised a solution with a resin injection company to reconstitute damaged portions of the foundations. Efforts were done with di minimis interruption to operations, with a daily production rate of $500K in sales.

Four Star Hotel & Offices – Rodney Square, Delaware – Investigated, engineered and improved many aspects of facility operation, mechanical systems, indoor air quality (IAQ), HVAC, building automation
systems (BAS), boilers, combustion tuning, chillers, utilities billing and metering to 3rd parties, steam leaks, piping distribution, to achieve increased reliability for the overall facility.

Commercial Supermarkets – US Nationally (PA, MI, WI, CA, DE, MN, UT, NY, OH, FL)
Performed investigations of refrigeration system issues, including fires during maintenance activities. Determined the cause of the fires were improper oil removal (vs. the perceived flammability of refrigerants) and advised owners and operators to fully and positively de–inventory refrigerant oil before the use of any open flame (torch) around the system. This recommendation led to reduced risk for the facilities and reduced potential litigation. This also prevented the release of incorrect information, such that the refrigerants were flammable, when they were not. Also, investigated the release of refrigerants to ambient due to improper replacement of seals and gaskets as recommended by the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM).

Roofing and Building Materials Manufacturer – Mexico & Brazil – Evaluated roofing and roofing membrane products, including general properties, sustainability, energy aspects, greenhouse gas (GHG) and life cycle properties (cradle to grave). Findings were utilized in the development of product and marketing materials.

Building Materials Manufacturer – Richmond, VA & Wilmington, DE – Evaluated product properties of Tyvek building wrap including general product properties and infiltration benefits to residential and commercial buildings. Investigated blower door data, performed ASHRAE, TRANE and “Energy 10” simulations to estimate a 10% reduced infiltration for buildings with certain types of moisture barrier protections. Issued findings and co–authored a paper on the findings which were utilized in aiding the development of product claims and marketing materials. Interfaced with EPA, Department of Energy (DOE), and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) as part of the effort.

Residential & Commercial Foam Insulation Manufacturer – Wilmington, DE – Performed a product comparison of spray foam insulations including R-Values, manufacturing and application costing. Per-formed a product liability analysis for a proposed next generation drywall material (vs. gypsum) and determined flammability risks of the new application were too high and recommended against the new application.

Coatings and Colorants Manufacturing Facility – Investigated an EPA refrigerant release due to a large centrifugal chiller, finding the root cause to be contract maintenance. Met with the owner and the con-tractor to discuss and prevent future occurrences ($1 million value). Investigated a large process cooling tower causing reliability and downtime losses in production valued at $1M per day. Implemented changes with plant operations to correct maintenance issues to deliver uptime benefits.

Country Club & Golf Course – Delaware – Investigated a new product application failure on an HVAC system causing reliability and potential Indoor Air Quality issues (IAQ). Worked with multiple OEMs with recommendations for the supplier OEM to use the new product only in compatible units, avoiding substantial commercialization costs and potential litigation.

Petrochemical Manufacturing Facility – West Virginia – Investigated the (vacuum) collapse of a large product storage silo and implemented corrective action, including reforming the vessel and safely welding stiffener rings (in a Class 1 Div. 1 atmosphere) in strategic locations. Investigated a large production fire caused by a plugged rotary blower on a pneumatic product conveying system. Implemented a 2 of 3 voting control scheme to provide safety interlocks to shut the system down to prevent future fires. These upgrades delivered uptime and reliability benefit to a $1M per day operation.

Petrochemical Facility – LaPorte, TX – Reviewed OSHA findings and the facility owner’s operations and maintenance activities regarding four fatalities that occurred during the facility startup after maintenance activities on the unit. Findings indicated unfamiliar situations for operations personnel.

Consumer Products/Injection Molding Manufacturer – Milford, CT – Performed a Route Cause Analysis (RCA) for a consumer product line regarding quality and safety concerns. Reviewed both the intermediate materials manufacturer, and the end use manufacturer’s facilities (injection molding), and determined the problem was contamination at the former’s facility. Investigated the relevant quality and operations procedures and found operations had not performed the requisite quality checks appropriately. Additionally, an equipment overhaul was required. Led the expedited $600K machine overhaul to successfully rebuild the manufacturing equipment per OEM specification.

Electronics/Coatings Manufacturer, Joint Venture – Sayreville, NJ – Evaluated failures of hot water heat exchangers (HX) used to condition HVAC systems of Class 1,000 and 10,000 clean room operations, causing product quality and downtime issues. Determined the Materials of Construction of the HX were prone to erosion due to fluid velocity and recommended replacement with Stainless Steel.

Mixed Use Facilities – Globally – Reviewed and investigated personal injuries and incidents including slips, trips and falls, hand injuries, back injuries, fork truck incidents, ergonomic injuries, hearing loss, an electrical related loss of limb accident, a breathing air fatality, construction and facilities injuries, vehicle accidents, NESHAPS exposures, asbestos incidents, asbestos remediation, lock tag try incidents, excavation incidents, confined space and asphyxiation risks, trenching and shoring up incidents.

Mixed Manufacturing / Armored Products Facility – Deepwater, NJ – Participated with the investigation team to review a serious fire that occurred on a thermal oxidizer system (newly refurbished) incinerations unit just after startup of the armored products intermediates manufacturing unit. Team findings showed the design-build firm failed to consider the possibility of backflow in a portion of the circuit. As such, the materials of construction in this section were inappropriate for use with high temperature flue gas which melted that section and caught fire. The team’s recommendations included upgrading materials of construction, increased instrumentation and unit controls, and awareness training for both the design firm & unit operations. The estimated value of lost downtime for this event was $20M.

Electronics Developer & Manufacturer – Santa Barbara, CA – Led design, engineering, and construction management of a semi-works facility scale up. The scope included upgrades to building and structural infrastructure, utility systems, prototyping/production areas, clean rooms and labs, as well as office and administrative areas at multiple locations. Maintained a fast-paced project schedule and kept project on budget to successfully complete the $40M project.

Automotive Coatings Production Facility – Philadelphia, PA – Investigated new products in the development, scale up and commercialization of automotive/polymer based resins, coatings, and inkjet inks. Ran R&D efforts for new formulations, catalysts, processed test batches on reactors and media mills, and performed product quality and performance tests. Made recommendations to business stakeholders regarding whether to proceed with proposed formulations. Managed operations (~20 direct reports), inventory, warehouse, engineering, maintenance and scheduling of product wheel on 6 process coatings resins manufacturing lines. Purview included full administrative control over several production reactors with over $80M in annual production. Significantly reduced production overtime in a union environment. Analyzed customer coatings failures (complaints) for truck, auto, and airline products by forensically tracing back to manufactured batches and checking for process upset causation. Reviewed and led portions of consequence analyses (CA) regarding catastrophic failures of facility systems including explosions, detonations, fire, and potential loss of life calculations to ascertain risk of operations. Managed Toxic Sub-stances Control Acts (TSCA) requirements in a High Hazard facility.

Textile, Safety, Armored Products & Construction Products Manufacturer – Richmond, VA – Per-formed an infrastructure risk assessment of a large industrial manufacturing complex (including products manufactured for U.S. Department of Defense contracts) with focus on risk of downtime valued at $1.5M/day. Developed $70M in capital project recommendations including upgrades to the water and wastewater systems, chillers (18000-ton capacity review), 30MW turbine generators, utilities infrastructure and distribution systems, heat sink/spray pond. Implemented upgrade projects with site engineers over several years to deliver uptime improvement benefits for the site.

Commercial Research & Office Facility – Greenville, DE – Reviewed the failure of a 500 KW Diesel Generator used for peak shaving and determined the catastrophic failure of the supercharger assembly. Reviewed the electrical savings and financial impact related to the generator and determined no functional savings from continued operation. Recommended ending the use of the peak shaving generator, avoiding a capex replacement savings of $300K.

Mechanical Systems Design Firm – Kalamazoo, MI – Investigated a new product failure, a one-ton hydraulic box dumping system, at a packaging and distribution facility. Developed a design upgrade in conjunction with the design-build firm at the facility. The main repair was the replacement of bushings
on the main pivot shaft with sealed, internally lubricated bearings. The device worked well following the upgrades and kept a $250K per day production online.

Extrusion Manufacturing Facility – West VA – Performed root cause analyses of two fires that occurred during operation: (1) extruder head and (2) extruder barrels. Successfully implemented process and administrative controls to eliminate additional fires, with uptime savings estimated at >$1M. Witnessed and reviewed a large absorber column and flare fire with serious catastrophic potential. Findings included loss of operational discipline (O.D.) in a Process Safety Managed (PSM) facility.

Pulp & Paper Mill – Southeast PA – Reviewed uptime and reliability issues in the converting and pack-aging operations. Identified archaic equipment and controls, recommending upgrades to achieve a 4% to 6% uptime benefit. Reviewed a fork-truck pedestrian incident, and other injuries at the facility and recommended upgrades to operating procedures to avoid future occurrences.

Petrochemical Manufacturer – Newtown Square, PA & Houston, TX – Investigated a reactor (bomb) explosion caused by a polymer decomposition in an R&D Lab. Determined chemistry was likely incorrect and recognized that the vessel ruptured disc was inappropriate. Made recommendations to process chemist and modified the ruptured disc design to avoid future occurrences.

Nuclear Power Generation Facility (Reactor Services) – Berks, PA – Participated in reactor refueling operations and maintenance activities with reactor services and turbine group at multiple 2200 MW facilities. Participated in the investigation of a 1100 MW turbine trip during routine operation at the facility, with downtime losses estimated at $500K – $1M daily. Worked with the turbine and reactor services teams to collect data and determine causation to be electrical synchronization issue in the generator. Man- aged portions of maintenance of a 125 Ton Refueling Overhead crane and the fuel floor bridge crane, designed structural supports for refueling equipment and emergency seals for the spent fuel pool. Per- formed maintenance on control rod shoot-out steel on underbelly of reactor.

Food Products / Processing Facilities – WI, KA, IA – Evaluated food process / production systems for multiple US facilities which had been purchased, operated and expanded by Dupont, including Danisco, Genencor, Solae, and Pioneer. The analyses related to the production of food products under FDA regulations (21 CFR) including, process heating and cooling systems, chillers / refrigeration and HVAC systems used in manufacturing. The product venues of these facilities included enzymes, soy, proteins, corn, culture blends, oilseeds, grains etc.