Glass Expert for Glass Plant Construction, Fractology, Proppants, and Glass Forensic Engineering

Technical Consultant #1353

23 years of glass engineering experience.
Glass manufacturing technology: Flat glass, fiber glass, glass spheres and specialty glass.
Manufacture of glass, ceramic and mineral beads of varying sizes for proppants.
Development and manufacture of specialty glass products including glass microspheres for electronics manufacturing, medical applications, proppants and reflective safety products with high and tailored index of refraction.
Forensic engineering and expert witness for glass fracture and ceramic failure mechanisms.
Advanced furnace design for glass melting and annealing.
Combustion system design and engineering.
Glass compositional development, particularly for fiber glass and glass - ceramic beads for applications such as retro-reflection in highway paint marking systems and proppants for gas and oil well production.
Glass manufacturing field service and hands-on process optimization.
Continuous quality improvement in glass manufacturing through statistical process analysis.
Turn-key glass plant design, construction and start-up.

Expert Witness Experience

A recognized expert witness in the area of general glass manufacturing, including batch and furnace design, operations, forming and packing.
Glass failure and glass fractology,
Fractology examinations,
Industrial furnaces,
Gas combustion equipment.

Undisclosed Company 2006 - Present

Glass Industry Consultant

Research and development for glass companies worldwide.
Oxygen combustion system and burner design.
Designed oxy corrosion research melter and managed project for four years.
Certified glass industry expert witness and consultant, five testimonies, one trial.
Designed combustion systems and furnace design improvements.
Project Manager (contractor basis) for the design and construction of two fiberglass plants.
Designed specialty glass plant in Sultanate of Brunei, project cancelled due to funding issues.
Ceramic research and development contributing to a major new company being formed.

Flex-O-Lite, Inc., Paris, TX, Plant, Engineer, 1998 - 1999

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.

MO-SCI Corporation, Rolla, MO, Senior Engineer, 1996 - 1998

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 TheraSphere® 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.
Developed water soluble glass composition for radar decoy chaff for U.S. Navy.
Worked on iron phosphate glass for Oak Ridge (nuclear waste vitrification).

PPG Industries, Meadville, PA, Production Engineer, 1994 - 1995

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.

Combustion Tee, Apopka, FL, Combustion Engineer, 1992 - 1994

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.
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).
Implemented first use of oxygen combustion in float glass (AFG)
Field service and technical troubleshooting to customers in all segments of glass manufacturing. (O-I, Anchor, Johns-Manville, Techneglass, Gallo, AFG, PPG, Ball Container, Hankuk Electric Glass, AFG China, Vitro Envasias, Owens Corning) manufacturing (flat glass, lighting products, containers, fiberglass, specialty and TV glass).

AFG Industries, Victorville, CA, Technical Development Engineer, 1991 - 1992

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.

Academic and Professional Affiliations

Member, American Ceramic Society
Research Staff Consultant, Department of Ceramic Engineering, University of Missouri, Rolla, MO.
Staff Technical Consultant, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO.

Publications