Dr. Richard C. Dickinson
Materials & Process Chemistry Consultant
345 W Fullerton Pkwy, #2108
Chicago, IL, 60614
Phone:
(773) 296-2123
E-mail: RCDmatchem@msn.com
Specialties:
Dr. Richard Dickinson is a professional chemist with 35+ years experience in academics, commercial, aerospace, electronics, and automotive-related industries. A hands-on consultant on various aspects of engineering materials and their applications, with extensive experience in manterials and process engineering, product research, development, and validation testing.
Product & Process Failure Modes & Effects Analysis (FMEA) Document Review & Technical Writing
Adhesive Bonding of Dissimilar Materials Adhesive Bonding in Miniature Electronic Devices
Applications Development, Testing, and Validation Variability Reductions in Products & Processes
Materials & Process Specifications Validation of Alternate Materials & Processes
Metal-to-Metal & Film-to-Metal Laminates & Processes Materials and Process Issues and Failures
Education:
Missouri University of Science and Technology (formerly, Univ. of Missouri-Rolla)... .Ph.D., Chemistry
Tennessee Technological University M.S., Chemistry
Tennessee Technological University B.S., Chemistry
Continuing Education:
Courses in Rubber Technology, Compounding and Processing; Fluorocarbon Polymers; Structure and Mechanical Properties of Polymer; Computer Modeling of Polymer;, and Inorganic Polymers sponsored by American Chemical Society.
Fundamentals of QS-9000 Quality System sponsored by Automotive Industry Action Group.
Professional Experience:
► Materials & Process Chemistry Consultancy, Chicago, Illinois, 2006 to present.
► Wolverine Advanced Materials, Blacksburg, Virginia.
Process Engineering Manager employed by a manufacturer and worldwide supplier of coated metals and metallic laminates and composites for brake noise control and sealing/gasket applications. Responsibilities including:► Material Sciences Corporation, Elk Grove Village, Illinois.
Held responsibility for bringing FMEA (Failure Modes & Effects Analysis) and materials-oriented approaches to optimizing processing parameters to improve product quality control, product performance characteristics, variability reduction, and cost reduction.
Supervised testing laboratory for manufacturing operations.
Director of Product Development employed by a manufacturer and supplier of coated metals and metallic laminates and composites for automotive, electronics, appliances, and other markets. Responsibilities including:► Lockheed Martin M&FC (formerly LTV Aerospace & Defense), Grand Prairie, Texas.
Oversaw product development projects, including consumer and industrial, electrical and electronic, and automotive applications. Held responsibility for new product development, product improvements, qualification of alternative raw materials, transitioning new materials from laboratory to production, FMEA and corrective actions, and support to manufacturing, purchasing, sales and marketing.
Engineering Laboratory Manager employed by a major defense company aircraft and missiles for design, prototyping, testing, and manufacturing of engineering components and systems. Responsibilities including:
Led multi-disciplinary staff of 50+ scientists, engineers, and technicians. Held accountability for professional development of staff members, managing department budget, capital equipment purchases, and maintenance of 21,000 square foot facility. Involved in materials science group specializing in the development of materials for very high temperature applications and fabrication and testing of prototype, fiber-reinforced, composite components.
Selected Projects and Activities:
Product and Process Development: Demonstrated leadership in development, formulation, testing, and manufacturing scale-up of film-to-metal, metal-to-metal, and specialty coated products including:
- Established controlling parameters for continuous processes and their relationships to material properties.
- Led initiatives to improve quality of manufactured products.
- Championed numerous continuous improvement projects.
- Managed development of documentation, including Product and Process FMEA.
- Championed project to resolve appearance defects in developing decorative laminate.
- Validated an alternate raw material for vehicle brake noise control product, arranged custom mixing and scaled up in production. Saved up to $300,000 annually.
- Developed polysiloxane-based pressure sensitive adhesive for brake shim applications. Continually optimized liner release coating performance.
- Led transfer of materials and process technology.
- Evaluated commercially-available chromium-free pre-treatments, full-scale trials and application-specific testing. Resulted in the first chromium-free coil coating line in the U.S.
- Championed change of major raw material that impacted company s primary products and secured $12,000,000 in sales.
- Conducted evaluations of water-based adhesives, UV curable adhesives, 100% solids viscoelastic formulations, and transfer tapes for uses on products manufactured by continuous coil coating processes.
- Appointed management representative to lead company s initiative to become QS-9000 certified. Resulted in successful completion of qualifying audit.
- Acted in transferring materials and process technology for manufacturing five of the company s products at a joint venture partner in Brazil.
- Provided technical advice and direction to division that suddenly achieved unacceptable mechanical properties in laminated product. Found that vendor had changed pre-treatment formulation.
- Coordinated studies of organic chemical contents of weld fumes generated during resistance spot welding.
Following are the most recent ones of a total of fourteen publications and twenty-six presentations.
Vehicle Brake Shims: A Tutorial for Continuous Product Improvement. SAE Technical Paper 2008-01-2547, 26th Annual SAE Brake Colloquium & Exhibition, San Antonio, TX, October 2008.
Materials for Noise and Vibration Control: What Causes Product Variability? SAE Technical Paper 2006-01-3226,
24th Annual SAE Brake Colloquium & Exhibition, Grapevine, TX, October 2006. This paper selected for inclusion in
SAE s 2006 Transactions.
Development of High Performance Gasket Materials for Low Cost Continuous Manufacturing, SAE Technical Paper 970521, SAE International Congress and Exposition, Detroit, 1997.
Multilayer Laminated Composites for Noise and Thermal Control, SAE Technical Paper 952239 (Series E) SAE BRASIL 95, Sao Paulo, Brazil, October 1995.
Development of Materials for Noise and Temperature Control, SAE Technical Paper 950621, SAE International Congress and Exposition, Detroit, February 1995.
Systems Approach to Brake Noise Damping, 11th Annual SAE Brake Colloquium & Engineering Display, Orlando, October 1993.
U.S. Patent #5,542,471 titled Heat Transfer Element Having Thermally Conductive Fibers, 1996.
