Glass Expert for Plant Glass Plant Construction, Glass Engineering and Glass Expert Witness (1353)
Expertise
- Glass expert for glass manufacturing technology: Flat glass, fiber glass and specialty glass, such as high index of refraction glass.
- Glass fractology and glass forensic engineering.
- Development and manufacture of specialty glass products including glass microspheres for electronics manufacturing, medical applications, and reflective safety products, including high index of refraction glass beads.
- Oxy-fuel combustion systems for glass melting.
- Turn-key glass plant design, construction and start-up.
- Forensic engineering/glass expert witness for glass and ceramic failure mechanisms.
- Advanced furnace design for glass melting and annealing.
- Combustion system design and engineering, including expert for advanced oxy-fuel combustion systems.
- Glass compositional development, particularly for fiber glass and glass/ceramic beads.
- Glass manufacturing field service and hands-on process optimization.
- Continuous quality improvement in glass manufacturing through statistical process analysis.
Experience
Project Manager and Consultant 2006 - Present
- Special burner designs for oxy-fuel combustion system.
- Glass expert witness for litigation matters: Glass failure analysis, glass handling, glass manufacturing engineering and specialty glass technology.
- Responsible for research and development, business management, project engineering, sales and marketing for an international engineering company specializing in turnkey glass manufacturing facility design and construction.
- Design and construct combustion systems, control technology, glass forming equipment, and sensors.
- Manage capital projects exceeding 200 million dollars.
- Supervise international work force consisting of consultants, engineers, managers and professional staff as well was hourly work force.
- Work with vendors and subcontractors and manage flow of project capital and material.
- Served as glass expert and technical consultant to University of Missouri.
- Designed, constructed, and operated a pilot-scale continuous glass melting furnace to test advanced materials for glass manufacturing.
- Designed advanced sensors and combustion equipment for a research program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy.
- Provided technical design and consulting services to major glass companies in the U.S. and abroad.
- Designed turn-key glass factory in Brunei to manufacture glass micro-spheres for reflective safety products.
- Glass expert witness for glass handling, glass product liability due to breakage, and glass and brittle material failure analysis.
- Performed fractology examinations to determine cause and origin of fractures.
- Over fifty active litigation cases with equal proportion of defense and plaintiff case work.
- Manage operations, production, and maintenance for a 100,000 square foot production facility producing glass micro-spheres.
- Designed new furnace and combustion systems to improve efficiency and increase production over 50%.
- Implemented oxygen combustion system to reduce NOx emissions and increase throughput. Reduced total production cost by 15% by streamlining manufacturing without adding any new equipment.
- Developed new glass compositions and increased quality of all major products.
- Manage production and research for a specialty glass company producing glass products for the defense and aerospace industries, bio-medical implants and devices, nuclear research, advanced electronics, and reflective safety products.
- Worked on production of TherasphereTM irradiated glass microspheres for treatment of liver cancer.
- Led design team to test feasibility of glass microspheres for explosive identification in cooperation with U.S. federal law enforcement.
- Manage batch house operations producing over 2 million pounds of mixed batch per day.
- Maintain raw material inventories and coordinate product changes to produce five different flat glass compositions for automotive glass applications.
- Responsible for special projects including test runs of new compositions.
- Furnace maintenance and tin bath operations support including emergency procedures and safety and ergonomic assessments.
- Managed research and development and designed new burners and combustion systems for advanced glass melting and furnace control.
- Lead engineer for oxygen-enriched air staging system to reduce NOx emissions from glass furnaces. (Now a widely used technology.)
- Designed "Cleanfire" oxygen/gas and oxygen/oil burners that became an industry standard in the 1990's.
- Provided capital equipment proposals and global customer technical support.
- Performed field service and technical troubleshooting to customers in all segments of glass manufacturing (flat glass, lighting products, containers, fiberglass, specialty and TV glass.)
- Managed plant technical development to test and implement new production equipment and control strategies.
- Supervised QA lab and provided daily quality control reports to senior management.
- Performed daily analysis to determine cause and origin of glass defects.
Honors & Publications
- Member, American Ceramic Society
- Research Staff Consultant, Department of Ceramic Engineering, University of Missouri - Rolla, 1996 - 2001.
- Staff Technical Consultant, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, 2001 - 2002
Education
BS, Ceramic Engineering, University of Missouri - Rolla