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FABRIC; TECHNICAL TEXTILES. Expert has 30 years of experience in the design, purchase, manufacture, testing, marketing, and sales of technical fabrics used in a range of industries, including airbags, coated and laminated products, and mechanical rubber goods (MRG). He has worked with geosynthetics (woven, knit, weft insertion, and needle punched) geotextiles, geogrids, geomembranes, and related products. His manufacturing experience includes fiber manufacture, spunlaid webs, weaving, knitting, and composite systems.

GEOTEXTILE; GEOSYNTHETIC MATERIAL. Expert is experienced in the design, production, and marketing of geotextiles and other geosynthetics. These are construction materials, in fabric or composite form, used in applications such as road and landfill construction. Geotextiles perform one or more functions, such as filtration, separation, containment, and other improvements to the performance of soil alone. Geotextiles take several forms--nonwoven, woven, knit, and composites, with each technology providing a unique package of features and benefits. Expert's specific expertise includes textile grid and needle punch patents, design of high-strength wovens, post consumer PET recycling, continuous filament, and staple fiber needled fabric.

NEEDLEPUNCH. Expert has expertise in the nonwoven manufacturing process used to bond staple or continuous filament fiber into a textile web. This material may then be used as a geotextile or converted (finished) for use as a filter, furnishings, carpets, and many other applications.

TECHNICAL TEXTILE DESIGN. Expert understands how many products, and the application of those products, are simply adaptations of existing designs to new uses. Adaptation, while admirable in economic terms for a manufacturer, is unlikely to optimize the textiles properties in terms of application needs. Expert has been awarded a US patent for knitted grid design, an International patent (US pending) for woven grid design, and a US patent for a needled filter fabric.

FILTRATION. His background with geotextiles has provide Expert with knowledge of how filtration is employed in a various industries using multiple materials in numerous configurations. He recognizes the principles as being the same--separation of different materials, capture of particulate, and cleansing or purifying a fluid stream. In geotechnical terms, filtration holds soil in place while allowing fluids, such as water or methane, to move freely.

EROSION CONTROL. Expert has significant experience with the prevention of soil loss, clean water, and environmental protection using a variety of techniques and products in both natural and synthetic materials. A popular group of products are known as turf reinforcement mats (TRMs) and erosion control reinforcement mats (ECRMs), which are manufactured to slow water flow, capture sediment, and prevent erosion while presenting a natural face. Expert believes the industry, the products, and the applications are highly unstructured with excellent opportunity for new and innovative entries.

He can answer in-depth questions on soil nailing (the reinforcement of soil in situ, without excavation), geogrids (strong mesh structures used as reinforcement in earthen structures, specifically in walls, steepened slopes, embankments), and mechanically stabilized earth (MSE), a process of excavation and subsequent placement of layers of reinforcement and fill.