Expertise

• Polycarbonate glazing for the automotive industry.
• Studied impact resistance, stress buildup, cracking, other weathering failures, hardness and modulus of coated polycarbonate.
• Developed test methods to address hardness/modulus changes for weathered polycarbonate.
• Polymers synthesis and formulations.
• Coatings and inks formulations and application developments for use on plastics and metals.
• Inks formulation and application for polycarbonate sheets and films.
• Bonding adhesives for polycarbonate glazing.
• Use of nanotechnology conductive silver ink paste development for coated and uncoated polycarbonate.
• Structure / property relationships: Weathering, mechanical properties (hardness, modulus, fracture mechanics, photo oxidation) of multi-layered coatings and inks on plastic and metal substrates.
• Product Quality - Six Sigma Blackbelt & APQP process

Experience

Exatec, LLC, Wixom, MI, Technical Leader, 2004 - 2008

• Exatec is a joint venture between Bayer Material Science and GE Plastics to develop polycarbonate materials for automotive and window glazing.
• Technical leader in coatings, inks, silver conductive pastes and bonding adhesives for coated polycarbonate.
• Accountable for working with suppliers of siloxane hard coats, thermal and UV curable coatings, conductive silver pastes, color inks and bonding adhesives for polycarbonate glazing, nanotechnologies and additives (UV absorbers, scratch additives, rheology).
• Established supplier agreements with major ink suppliers and as a strong Exatec industrial partners. Worked with Japanese ink suppliers.
• Led a team in developing and launching a black ink solvent borne formulation for polycarbonate substrates for use in automotive glazing.
• Initiated and completed most industrialization requirements (regulatory, scale-up, manufacturing / processing issues) for ink development for Exatec.
• Developed coating solutions (solventborne and waterborne solutions ) from five major suppliers and UV absorbers from two major suppliers in primers and topcoats.
• Developed new analytical and application test methods (hardness, modulus, refractive index) for coating application and testing.
• Six Sigma project-yield improvement for coated polycarbonate identified defects.
• Initiated a wet-on-wet method for application of ink and primer coating, with a view of minimizing exposure of polycarbonate to heat and achieving cost savings and oven space.
• Designed an ink system to work on top of plasma resulting in a number of successful prototypes using Exatec 900 ink.
• Successful applications of APQP process for bonding and wetcoats.
• Built strong relationships with four suppliers in evaluation of their adhesives systems for coated polycarbonate for automotive window glazing application, and with two encapsulation companies in evaluation of encapsulation systems.

BASF Coatings Division, Southfield, MI, 1991 - 2004

Senior Research Chemist / Research Associate / Senior Research Associate

• Six Sigma Black Belt Project: Led a cross functional team consisting of marketing, manufacturing and lab personnel to eliminate problems in solvent borne clear coat resin production.
• Six Sigma Black Belt Project - Led a cross functional team consisting of customer, customer plant technical staff, marketing, manufacturing and lab personnel to eliminate seeding in high solids solventborne basecoats.
• Led an International team consisting of German and American scientists towards development of a waterborne basecoat formulation.
• Devised a unique cost savings method to aid in the development of coatings.
• Prepared and evaluated over 500 paint formulations.
• Used High Throughput Screening / Combinatorial chemistry techniques for paint formulations.
• Investigated various novel crosslinking mechanisms to improve cure characteristics for solventborne and waterborne coatings for metals and plastics.
• Developed experience in spray applications using waterborne and solvent borne coating formulations.
• Developed a number of solution and aqueous acrylic polymers for solventborne and waterborne applications for clearcoat, basecoat, electrcoat and primer.
• Initiated fundamental / basic model studies looking at morphology of particles in waterborne formulations.
• Investigated fundamental waterborne issues like stability, settling, rheology and film formation.
• Investigated structure-property relationships of polymers and coatings with a focus on effect of crosslinking and thickness on mechanical properties of coatings.
• Production and scale-up experience for a number of solution and aqueous acrylic polymers for solvent-borne and waterborne applications.
• Extensive experience in synthesis of various polymers (polyesters, polyurethanes, acrylics-both waterborne and solventborne) for automotive coating applications.
• Extensive formulation experience of solventborne and colloidal aqueous dispersions for coatings.
• Developed manufacturing process for emulsion polymers including leading to production scale-up of emulsion polymers in U.S. and Germany and novel low viscosity hydrophobically modified (core / shell ) polymers for waterborne basecoat applications using polyesters, polyurethanes and polyacrylate technologies.
• Evaluation and application of variety of surfactants for waterborne coating formulations and emulsion polymer syntheses.
• Investigated various novel crosslinking mechanisms to improve cure characteristics.
• Developed experience in spray applications using waterborne and solvent borne coating formulations.

Honors & Publications

Academic and Professional Affiliations

• Section Chair, American Chemical Society.
• Chairperson for the Woman Chemists Society - ACS.
• Current Chair of ACS Industrial Relations Committee.
• Federation of Societies of Coating Technology.
• Certified Six Sigma Blackbelt, completed GE greenbelt training and project work.
• Adjunct Professor - Organic Chemistry.

Languages

• Fluent in German, Hindi and Tamil

Patents and Publications

• 35 US and International patents issued, published and in process.
• 20 Invention Disclosures under review (Exatec and BASF.)
• Sole author of Textbook Chapter.
• 15 publications in peer-reviewed journals.
• 3 presentations in International and American Chemical Society National Conferences.
• Wrote Industrialization manuals / trouble shooting guides for coatings and ink for polycarbonate glazing.

Education

• Ph.D., Organic Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, India
• M.S., Organic Chemistry, Presidency College, India