Expert Details
Food Engineer—Extrusion
ID: 738053
Arizona, USA
Education
| Year | Degree | Subject | Institution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year: 1981 | Degree: B.S. | Subject: Food Engineering | Institution: Purdue University |
Work History
| Years | Employer | Title | Department |
|---|---|---|---|
| Years: 2012 to 2018 | Employer: Buhler, Inc. | Title: Technologist | Department: Value Nutrition |
Responsibilities:• Worked with a 62-mm twin-screw extruder, coordinating, leading, or assisting in trials for Bühler’s customers or potential customers at its Food Innovation Center (FIC). This included designing and executing experiments. Key to that were developing screw configurations, die geometries, recipes, and understanding and interpreting the relationships between extrusion fac-tors, system parameters, and the final product’s properties. Products included breakfast cereals, snacks, pet food, ingredients, HMEC, and biodegradable packaging material.• Traveled domestically and internationally to customers to trouble-shoot problems with their ex-trusion process, including toasters, dryers, and slurry systems. • Led technology commissioning for customers throughout the US and internationally in China, Guatemala, India, Mexico, and South Africa. • Worked extensively on these trouble-shooting and start-up assignments with Bühler’s 30-mm, 42-mm, 62-mm, 93-mm, and 125-mm twin-screws. • One of the instructors for the theoretical and practical portions of Bühler two annual extru¬sion workshops in the Twin Cities. • Taught or co-taught a workshop at the Bühler world headquarters in Uzwil, Switzerland, as well as at customers’ facilities in Arkansas, China, Guatemala, Indiana, Kansas, Massachu¬setts, Mexico, South Africa, and Washington. • Completed installing and commissioning in the FIC Bühler’s batch 50-liter pasteurizer-sterilizer called CCP, or controlled condensation process. (The unit pasteurizes or sterilizes low-moisture foods, such as nuts and spices.) This included overhauling virtually all the components and sub-systems in the process. • Led CCP trials in the lab for customers. Participated in the start-up of a 7000-liter production unit at an almond farm in central California. |
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| Years | Employer | Title | Department |
| Years: 1990 to 2012 | Employer: General Mills, Inc. | Title: Senior Principal Engineer | Department: Big G R&D |
Responsibilities:Process and Product Development• One of the company’s chief resources for twin-screw extrusion. • Led or was a team member on thirty-one start-ups, domestically and internationally, and at con-tract processors. International sites included Lagos, Mexico, and Caçapava, Brazil. • R&D twin-screw platform leader, providing product and process leadership and support to man-ufacturing sites for all of General Mills’ (GMI) and some of Cereal Partners Worldwide (CPW) twin-screw cereals. Led and executed hundreds of plant tests, including scale-up work; trouble-shooting; increasing rates; testing new dies and screw configurations; optimizing extrusion con-ditions; reducing the cost of recipes, resulting in over $1.2 million in savings; and determining the feasibility of alternate ingredients. International sites included Lagos and Bromborough, England. • Re-located to Albuquerque facility for four months to act as an on-site R&D resource, processing trouble-shooter, and trainer. • Led R&D effort in developing a dehydrated confection, a project that upon completion will result in annual savings of $7 million. • Introduced to R&D and Operations universal engineering terms for extrusion, such as specific mechanical energy, specific steam energy, specific die flow, mean residence time, and residence time distribution, thereby defining our process and making scaling up and trouble-shooting easier. Training and Mentoring • Developed and taught GMI Cereal School Twin-screw Day and Twin-screw Week since its in-ception in 1992, for which I won a Bell Achievement Award, the highest technical award in the company. • Developed and taught twin-screw courses for all GMI US twin-screw facilities, including Albu-querque, Cedar Rapids, Covington, Toledo, and West Chicago. • Developed and taught twin-screw courses for CPW facilities in Lagos; Maipu, Chile; and Wel-wyn Garden City, England; and for CPW Latin America taught at James Ford Bell Tech¬nical Center (JFB) • Developed and taught twin-screw courses in Bromborough and Torun, Poland, with CPW coun-terpart. • Participated in developing CPW-wide direct-expanded extrusion course. • Developed and taught courses in domestic locations on material balances, steam, engineering fundamentals, and general problem-solving skills. • Acted as program manager for GMI-MIT Practice School in spring 2004 and served during other sessions as a project leader and program liaison. • Developed summer intern project and managed intern in summer 2007. • Served as an unofficial mentor to dozens of young professionals at JFB. Other • Set the company standard for documentation, be it from pilot plant or production plant testing. • Conceived, wrote, and published General Mills Extrusion News newsletter, for over twenty years, at a rate of thirteen issues annually. • Regular participant in GMI Technical Conference. • Organized and led the General Mills Christmas Orchestra for twenty years. • Performed with the G Naturals, the General Mills jazz band, at two dozen work functions. |
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| Years | Employer | Title | Department |
| Years: 1989 to 1990 | Employer: Borden, Inc. | Title: Senior Process Engineer | Department: Process Development |
Responsibilities:Developed pilot process to manufacture tortilla chips; improved wheat milling and conventional pasta production; performed system audit on tomato processing plant and specialty pasta plant; and increased throughput of Cracker Jack process. |
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| Years | Employer | Title | Department |
| Years: 1981 to 1989 | Employer: Kraft, Inc. | Title: Research Engineer | Department: Process Engineering |
Responsibilities:Co-led exploratory single- and twin-screw extrusion program; developed quick-cooking pasta on both types of extruder; reduced variability in pourable salad dressing in all North American Kraft plants; installed and started up removal system for bulk tomato paste; renovated and managed two pilot plant areas; and supervised two technicians. |
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International Experience
| Years | Country / Region | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| Years: 1993 to 2012 | Country / Region: Brazil, Chile, China, England, Guatemala, India, Mexico, Portugal, South Africa, Switzerland, Wales | Summary: Start-ups, trouble-shooting, training, all related to twin-screw extrusion. |
Career Accomplishments
| Licenses / Certifications |
|---|
| Certifications • Machines and Process Technology for the Feed Milling Industry at the Swiss Institute for Feed Technology • HACCP workshop • FSMA workshop • Special Engineer’s license • Forklift operation |
| Awards / Recognition |
|---|
| • Member of technical team that won Food Technology Industrial Achievement Award for the aforementioned CCP Bell Achievement Award at General Mills for training. |
| Publications and Patents Summary |
|---|
| Patents: 2 |
Additional Experience
| Expert Witness Experience |
|---|
| 1993—Borden and Hunt's. Dispute over contractual agreement. |
| Training / Seminars |
|---|
| Additional Education and Training • Completed three-day aqua-feed class taught jointly by Bühler and the USFWS in Bozeman, Montana • Completed two-day Endress & Hauser basic instrumentation class • Completed two-day K-Tron gravimetric feeder class • Learned AutoCad 2011, both 2D and 3D |
Language Skills
| Language | Proficiency |
|---|---|
| Spanish | Beginner-plus |