PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
ITW Buehler, Laboratory Department – Lake Bluff, IL
Materials Applications Engineer (Applications Engineer II) Aug 2018 – Present
- Assist customers with developing sample preparation processes to characterize materials for specific applications, drive research & development, manipulate material properties, and perform failure analyses.
- Create and improve procedures to test polishing cloths and diamond grinding discs to better characterize current and new products.
- Author new approaches to beta testing new equipment, increasing testing speed from weeks to days.
- Track and report metrics via Excel, Microsoft Dynamics, and Power BI to uncover performance gaps and make strategic adjustments.
- Teach basic metallography courses to educate and demonstrate best practices to customers and train new hires.
- Mentor interns to support their projects on metallography case studies, applications case studies, and smaller NPD projects.
- Serve as a technical liaison between laboratory and other departments, vendors, or contractors, communicating on quality control testing, materials qualification testing for engineering change order (ECO), and materials qualification testing for NPD.
- Help product managers test new epoxies and phenolics for markets that need less hazardous formulations due to regulations.
- Author and produce technical articles, blogs, videos, and micrograph images for products and methods for marketing and customers.
- Found a way to etch titanium for structure using 3% hydrogen peroxide rather than more hazardous hydrofluoric acid or chemicals that dissociates hydrogen fluoride commonly found in etching techniques for titanium alloys.
Materials Engineer (Applications Engineer I) Jun 2015 – Aug 2018
- Prepared lab samples and conducted testing of raw materials, in-process materials, and finished goods within a manufacturer of metallographic lab testing equipment, including scientific instruments & supplies for cross-sectional material testing.
- Materials include ceramics, composites, semiconductors, metals, rocks and minerals, and plastics.
- Completed lab service requests as proof of concept for new lab equipment and suppliers and developed materials preparation methods for product development for external customers; authored lab and analysis reports to show reliability and compliance.
- Used metallography methods that revealed true structure of materials for hardness testing, SEM analysis, and image analysis by optical microscope in compliance with ISO and ASTM standards.
- Conducted weekly/monthly laboratory safety and equipment checks, including chemical inspections for proper labels and storage.
- Performed quality assurance tests on products to evaluate density, peak exotherm, hardness, materials removal rate, and more.
- Served clients across industries, including automotive & supplier, aerospace, electronics & telecom, bio medical, machine & plant manufacturer, metal processing / fabrication, primary metals, energy, petrography, defense, optic, and corporate R&D.
- Assisted new product development team with alpha and beta testing of metallurgical saws, mounting presses, grinder-polishers, hardness testers, and other new equipment.
- Used optical microscopy to identify layer thickness, deformation, layer structure, diffusion zone, voids / porosity, precipitate study, shrinkage, cracks, and more.
