Senior Mechanical Reliability Engineer, Bayport, Texas                                                 July 2001-October 2005                 

• Responsibilities for support of rotating/stationary equipment repairs in 170Klbs/hr polypropylene manufacturing facility
• Chaired Predictive Maintenance Committee, back-up to Maintenance Manager
• Led Failure Modes & Effects Analysis on an entire production unit.  This unit was experiencing unusually low on-stream time of 50-55% for 2-3 months.  Our analysis was completed in 10 days and the team’s 155 findings and recommendations restored on-stream time to 94% within 2 months.
• Led Root Cause Analysis of catalyst metering cylinder failures. Changes to the piston seal design and a system flushing procedure increased MTBF from 10 days to 1 year.
• Led Root Cause Failure Analysis of Aerzen screw compressor failures on pellet conveyor system. Previously there had been 155 trips of the conveying system over 5 years and several shutdowns of a 100K lbs/hr extruder.  By identifying several malfunctioning control valves and limit switches, we eliminated this and $400K in repair expense and rental equipment costs.
• My analysis of Sundyne & Sunflo pump failures reduced maintenance costs and downtime by 75%.  Problems included gearbox foaming, seal leaks, shaft failures, and chronic vibration.
• Reduced trips of Ingersoll Rand Centac instrument air compressors, from once/week to once/year.  I identified intercooler fouling and condensate trap failures as the source of impeller damage, compressor surge, and shutdowns from high temperature.