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Expert has extensive experience working in chemical plant manufacturing at several DuPont facilities: Niagara Falls, NY; Victoria, TX; Savannah River, SC; Cape Fear, NC; Sabine River, TX; and Florence, SC. He has always worked in a technical role in manufacturing and specialized in yield and quality improvements. His other duties included supervising the startup of new equipment, troubleshooting day-to-day problems and training technicians. He has experience in the following processes: dodecanedioic acid, adipic acid, dimethylterephthalate (DMT), terephthalic acid (TPA), adiponitrile (ADN), Surlyn™ ethylene copolymer, Mylar™, and Cronar™. Expert solved major, chronic problems in both the Mylar™ and Cronar™ processes. He developed a new additive process that was strategic to saving the Mylar™ video base business as well as significantly reducing the cost of manufacture. For this he received a $10,000 award from the corporate vice president. He discovered a new coating formulation for Cronar™, which resulted in yield savings, eliminated a toxic air emission, and a fire/explosion hazard. Expert received a Safety, Health, and Environmental Award for this achievement.

A major role during Expert’ career with DuPont was process troubleshooting. This included everything from solving day-to-day problems to tackling problems requiring more long-term solutions. Day-to-day problems included process upsets, equipment issues, safety issues, operator errors, and quality control. During his last 12 years with DuPont in the Mylar™ and Cronar™ plants, process troubleshooting required about 50% of his time. An expert knowledge of the Cronar™ polymer process was required to perform the needed troubleshooting. For example, a major crisis was averted when a plugged spray condenser was diagnosed as being the cause of a process upset that was overloading waste treatment. The Cronar™ plant was only two hours away from having to shut down when he identified the problem and had it corrected. As an example of longer-range troubleshooting, Expert was instrumental in identifying and measuring the yield losses in the ADN Plant. This eventually resulted in a yield improvement program. Expert worked for six years in the Cronar coating area and has extensive experience in troubleshooting film coating problems.

Expert has 30 years experience with plant testing at DuPont as a plant technical engineer. During this time, he took courses in the strategy of experimentation, which is used to design plant tests. While at DuPont, he wrote experimental operating directions (EOD) and test authorizations (TA) for the purpose of process optimization and improved quality. Experimental procedures included test objective, background summary, operating directions and lab instructions. The tests most often had technical coverage. A closing report would then be written to summarize the results and document the test conclusions. Examples of Expert’ plant testing at DuPont include: optimization of the TPA reactors via adjusting reactor conditions and reduced catalyst consumption via increased mother liquor recycling; improving ADN yield via plant optimization; improving Mylar™ film quality and improved Mylar™ polymer filter life via high efficiency additive filtration; and, improving Cronar™ coating yields via new coating formulations and air knife coater adjustments. In addition, while consulting at Inter-Cal Nutraceuticals, he did extensive testing at the mixer/reactor vendor’s location to establish new operating parameters for the manufacture of Ester-C.

Expert has six years’ experience with DuPont Cronar polyester film coating and film drying. His expertise includes aqueous coating formulations of resin (polyvinylidene chloride), gelatin, and antistatic substrates. He is very knowledgeable of roll coaters and air-knife coaters. Expert' work in polyester film coating included optimizing coater parameters, troubleshooting coating problems, coated film quality improvements, coated film yield improvements, raw materials improvements and specifications, working with raw material vendors, working with coater vendors, coater training, writing coater operating procedures, analyzing coated film quality, conducting coater tests, and developing new coating formulations. While working with Cronar™, Expert was instrumental in increasing the PASS (permanent antistatic substrate) quality yield from 70% to 90% by modifying the coating equipment, procedures, and raw materials. This resulted in more than one million dollars in savings annually. Also, Expert discovered a new Cronar™ gelatin coating formulation that reduced the coater cleanup frequency from once per day to once per week. This resulted in yield savings of $350,000 annually as well as eliminating a toxic air emission (ethanol) and eliminating a potential fire/explosion hazard. This new formulation replaced a 30-year-old formulation and was implemented company-wide. He received a Safety, Health, and Environmental Award for this achievement. Expert has also worked with slip additives in coatings for improved film winding and film handling. He is knowledgeable of the different types of slip additives, how the slip additives are prepared, and what concentrations to use in the coating solution.

During his 30-year career with DuPont, Expert was involved with many quality improvement programs. He conducted tests and implemented projects to improve quality. He worked with lab personnel to improve quality test methods, develop quality control procedures, and develop quality specifications. He took PQM (Product Quality Management) courses at the DuPont Sabine plant and is knowledgeable of PQM procedures. Expert worked at the Sabine plant to reduce the moisture and gel levels in DuPont Surlyn™. This was important to the ethylene copolymers business in order to maintain market share. At Florence, he developed a new slip additive filtration process for Mylar™ video base film. The "microspeck" level was reduced to almost zero by removing the slip additive particles greater than one micron. This enabled DuPont to sell video base film to Sony and eventually form a partnership with Teijin. This breakthrough technology was strategic to saving the Mylar™ video base film business, and it was adopted company wide. Also, the Mylar™ film color control was greatly improved by working with the vendor to improve the consistency of the color additives (blue and purple dyes). With Cronar™, several quality improvements were made to the PASS (permanent antistatic substrate) film quality. PASS "streaks" were reduced by making improvements to the PASS coater and to the PASS coating solution. PASS film "haze" was eliminated by working with the vendor to improve the quality of the main ingredient in the PASS solution. PASS film "dots" were eliminated by installing "electrostatic discharge" or ESD treater equipment upstream of the PASS coater. Much testing was done over a period of six years in the Cronar™ area to make these improvements. In addition, he has worked with vendors to improve the quality of raw materials.

During his 30-year career with DuPont, Expert was active in making yield improvements in the following processes: adipic acid via optimization of the adipic reactor conditions, terephthalic acid (TPA) via optimization of TPA reactor conditions and recycle of waste streams, adiponitrile (ADN) via identification and reduction of waste streams as well as ADN reactor optimization, Mylar™ film yield and Cronar™ film yield via major quality improvements. Yield improvements required expertise in plant testing, equipment modification, and/or project implementation. Expert conducted a series of plant tests at the TPA Cape Fear plant to determine the reactor conditions (pressure, temperature, and catalyst level) that would result in the highest paraxylene yield to TPA. TPA is a key ingredient in the manufacture of polyester fiber and this yield improvement was significant in the cost of polyester manufacture. Expert installed composite samplers at the ADN plant at Sabine on all waste streams to first determine the sources and extent of each yield loss. Once the sources were identified, appropriate action was taken to minimize each loss. Yield accounting procedures were then put in place so that a daily yield and month-to-date yield could be established for the ADN plant. Eventually, the yield accounting system was computerized and reports were distributed each day. At Florence, the Cronar™ PASS film yield was improved from 70% to 90% by modifying the coating equipment, installing new ED treaters, improving procedures, and improving the quality of raw materials.

During his 12 years at the Florence DuPont Plant, Expert installed several particle filtration systems in the Mylar™ and Cronar™ processes. Both Mylar™ and Cronar™ use several additives. These include slip additives, color control additives, and catalyst additives, all of which must be filtered. His expertise includes knowing what type of filter to use and how it should be installed in the process. He has experience with cartridge filters and with bag filters. He has worked with many particle filtration vendors including 3M, one of the leading producers of filters designed for separating particles from liquid streams. Most notable of his work was the installation of the "high efficiency" additive filtration system in the Mylar™ polymer area. This 3M filtration system was able to perform a very difficult particle separation in that slip additive particles greater than one micron were removed from the additive stream using 3M's new technology. This particle filtration system was so successful that the quality of the Mylar video base film went from poor to extremely good due to the elimination of "microspecks" in the film. This allowed DuPont to sell video base film to Sony and to maintain a strong market share in the video base film business. Also, as a corollary benefit, the polymer filter life was increased substantially by removing the oversized slip additive particles before the slip additive was injected into the polymer stream. Expert is also knowledgeable in polymer filtration. He has experience with metal cartridge filters that are used to remove particles from the polymer stream and also with the cleaning of these filters. He has worked with polymer filtration vendors to procure filter cartridges for Mylar™ and Cronar™ polyester.

Expert has 12 years’ experience with the production of polyester polymer while working at the Florence DuPont Plant. He spent four years in the Mylar™ plant and eight years in the Cronar™ plant. His expertise includes the polymer equipment, the procedures, startups and shutdowns, the process, training, troubleshooting, and quality control. Also, he is knowledgeable in polyester chemistry, and has a strong background in terephthalic acid (TPA) and dimethyl terephthalate (DMT) which are key raw materials for polyester. The polyester polymer in Cronar™ was used to produce both film and pellets. Both were used internally by DuPont. His work experiences with Mylar™ and Cronar™ were focused on improving the polyester yield and quality. He was instrumental in installing several projects during his years with Cronar™ including a new polymer pelletization process and new equipment that was used to improve the polymer color. During his years in both Mylar™ and Cronar™, Expert was a mentor to new engineers and operators. He wrote training modules and conducted training classes for new operators.

Expert graduated from the University of Arizona with an M.S. degree in chemical engineering in 1968. During his 30-year career with DuPont he applied his academic training at six different manufacturing sites while working on ten different processes: sodium, dodecanedioic acid (DDDA), adipic acid, plutonium, dimethylterephthalate (DMT), terephthalic acid (TPA), adiponitrile (ADN), Surlyn ethylene copolymer, Mylar, and Cronar. Knowledge of all the unit operations was applied during his career in manufacturing. Before his retirement in 1997 he had attained the level of Senior Technical Associate at the Florence, South Carolina plant. As a chemical engineer he worked in a technical role and specialized in process development programs leading to yield enhancement and quality improvement. He also has expertise in plant testing, process troubleshooting, and plant startups and shutdowns. Expert is very results oriented and enjoys solving process problems.

Expert worked with a mixer/reactor vendor to develop new operating parameters using new equipment for the production of larger batches of Ester-C, a vitamin supplement, at Inter-Cal Nutraceuticals. He helped to develop a new carbonate analyzer at Inter-Cal. A reliable test was needed to properly evaluate the new mixer/reactor.