Material Development Engineer-Dry Friction

ESSENTIAL DUTIES and RESPONSIBILITIES

• Directly and indirectly develop friction materials in transmission and brakes for off highway (mining, construction, agriculture), aircraft, power sports, recreation, heavy truck, and industrial applications.
• Supervise and pilot/fabricate test materials manufactured in plant environments.
• Participate in and sometimes lead project/program management of a typical APQP/stage gate/phased launch process for creating new materials (NPD, NPI).
• Manage multiple testing plans/DVP&R’s across a broad range of applications, formulas, processes, customers, and plants.
• Regularly report out on program status, team progress, performance and actions.
• Develop personnel performance and development plans in conjunction with company goals.
• Assist in studying markets, customer applications/usage, new technology and regulatory landscape to create technical roadmaps.
• Generate research and development projects with focus on commercialization and product launch.
• Participate in industry associations globally for materials, testing, brakes, and various end-market industry associations.
• Experience in ceramics, polymers, composites, and other materials and material science systems.
• Strong theoretical knowledge of coppers, steels, non-ferrous powder metallurgy and friction characteristics associated with brakes, clutches and drive trains.
• Experience with composite mixing, molding/bonding, curing/baking, and finishing of dry friction products is desired.
• Some experience with metallic or powdered metallurgy environments is helpful.
• Experience with sintering/brazing and heat treatment of steels is helpful.
• Able to use concepts and tools of Six Sigma as a means to develop materials to meet customer requirements, including Design of Experiments (DOE), DFMEA, and understanding a QFD to establish customer critical requirements.
• Interface with sales personnel in and on customer visits when necessary. Understand conditions under which the manufactured parts must operate in the longer term from an applications perspective.
• Comfortable presenting technical data sheets, test results, and failure analysis to both internal and external customers.
• Collaborate on equipment setup, operation and maintenance procedures for laboratory and dynamometers.
• Recommend new and improved test procedures to improve test quality and reduce test time.
• Interface with product and manufacturing engineering to introduce and further develop new materials.
• Assist production when difficulties occur in manufacturing parts in the engineer’s product area.
• Interface with test engineers to develop new test methods and procedures as well as communicating how test data is analyzed and presented.
• Interpret dynamometer and analytical test lab results.
• Support quality control and supplier quality to work on production and developmental issues relating to part quality, standards, testing methods, and analysis of defects.
• Support sourcing via helping to identify new suppliers, assisting with supplier audits as necessary, generating standards/specifications for qualifying incoming products.
• Experience in evaluating new raw material sources due to shortage, va/ve, and performance enhancements is highly recommended.
• Assist with the creation and maintenance of ISO/QS documentation and control systems.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Education: Minimum of a Bachelors Degree, in Chemistry, Materials Science, Metallurgy, Physics, Composite Materials & Structures, Chemical Engineering, or Mechanical Engineering. Masters or Advanced Technical Degree in these fields preferred but not required.
• Experience and/or Training: Ideally 10-15 years of experience (more preferred) in compounding/formulating, product development, testing, and launch of materials. Ideally 3-5 years of experience (more preferred) in managing formulators/compounders. Strong theoretical knowledge of physical properties and materials science relating to the use of such materials in friction material composites. Analytical evaluation typically includes DSC, TGA, FTIR, GC Mass spectroscopy, elemental and phase identification, particle size, optical and electron microscopy, particle sizing and compound identification. Experience with the use of these materials in friction applications such as brakes, clutches and drivetrains is a plus. Practical experience with the use of Six Sigma techniques is desirable but not essential as formal on-site training is available and encouraged. A history of successful commercialization of friction materials is preferred.