Eric Wilkins Email & Phone Number

Clinton, Massachusetts, United States

Darmann Abrasive Products is the leader in fine grit abrasive technology. The company’s custom products range from superfinishing stones that can generate ultra-fine surface finishes for bearing raceways & hip joints to relatively coarser grit stones for cylinder honing. Darmann Abrasives name is synonymous with the highest quality and consistency and this has made us the preferred supplier to the majority of worldwide superfinishing OEMs.

Devens, Ma

• Manufacturing lead for Additive manufacturing SiC flight hardware. • Bond Tooling design, fabrication, documentation, and production

Worcester Ma

• Manufacturing Engineer working with Diamond Abrasives products for customers manufacturing Electronics products• Abrasive products include: Fixed Diamond Wire Sawing, High Precision Dicing Blades, and Wafer face grinding/polishing• Processes include: electroplating, vitreous sintering, mixing, grinding, powder metallurgy, laser cutting, loose abrasive lapping, hot pressing, uni-axial hydraulic press/controls, and atmosphere/vacuum furnace firing• Tools used are: 6σ/Lean Manufacturing, FMEA, Designed Experiments (DOE), Kaizen, 5S, 5Y analyses, 8D/PDCA/DMAIC, World Class Manufacturing (WCM) Green Belt Certification, Fishbone, Root Cause and Corrective Action (RCCA)• Developed lapping process to make dicing blades at 40µm thickness• Developed bond formulation resulting in increasing yield from from 50% to 85%• Designed tooling and press control system to improve yield from 75% to 90%• Best Practice recognition award for Green Belt project• Industrialized and transferred Fixed Diamond Wire production lines from R&D to manufacturing, $3M/yr sales• Project to improve wire performance by 2x for key customer using electrochemistry and fluid flow models

Devens, Massachussets

• Engineering lead for 8 member team manufacturing large (meter +) complex, light-weighted Siliconized Silicon Carbide (SiSiC) mirror substrate castings used primarily for active or passive optics applications at a TRL 6 for space and terrestrial military/civilian applications.• Project/Program manager of $2.8M project to develop process and manufacture multiple 1.5m castings. Managed technical, financial, customer reporting, and manufacturing operations.• Led substrate manufacturing team in 4 year effort to: design/build/install over $1M of infrastructure, tooling and test equipment, in 60,000 sq ft facility for manufacturing 1.35m mirror substrates. Received multiple customer appreciation awards for the team of 18 machinists, engineers, and technicians.• Documented all process actions into procedures and work instructions. Continued maintenance and training of documentation system. Reviewed and upgraded all documents to reach Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6 criteria and AS9100C/ISO9001-2008.• Conducted Root Cause and Corrective Action (RCCA) investigations and Material Review Board (MRB) activities with direct customer and corporate involvement.• Led vacuum furnace engineering: hardware, hotzone, systems, retort and product support furniture. • Developed, installed, tested, and validated a furnace control system upgrade with PLC ladder and RSView leading to 50% reduction in labor.• Engineering lead for SiC recrystalization and siliconization firing cycle development, testing and validation.• Conducted experiments that resulted in a 30% reduction of residual stress leading to reduced lead time and cost. • Maintained security clearance (SCI/TS), confined space entry certified.

Little Rock, Arkansas Area

• Responsible for Product/Process Development and troubleshooting. • Worked with: Reaction Bonded SiC, Sintered SiC, Graphite Loaded Sintered SiC, Liquid Phase Sintered SiC, Reaction Bonded Boron Carbide, Aluminum Oxide, CVD SiC, and related processing functions. • Optimized microstructure and resulting material properties for specific intensive duty applications, including mechanical seals and ceramic armor. Actively solicited customer input on new materials and processes in a close relationship with the customer.• Directed effort to increase RBSiC yield by 50% resulting in cost savings of over $1M/yr• Supervised 6 engineers and technicians in R&D, green/firing operations, and ceramic shrinkage control• Project manager for design, fabrication, testing, validation and operation of a $500k automated seal testing lab. Delivered on time and under budget.• 6 sigma and lean manufacturing methods used for maintenance and improvement of daily operations.• Developed Graphite Loaded Sintered Silicon Carbide, GSiC: US Pat#s: 6774073, 7015165• Developed, tested, and qualified Aqueous Colloidal Graphite for making Reaction Bonded Silicon Carbide• Developed Boron Nitride Loaded Reaction Bonded Silicon Carbide BNSiC: US Pat# 6398991• Developed Alpha Sintered Silicon Carbide, SSiC, powder and sintering system (SC30)• Developed Liquid Phase Sintered Silicon Carbide, LPSiC, powder and sintering system (SC50)• Developed powder grinding system to make sinterable SiC raw material powder in house leading to a 50% reduction in powder cost• Traveled to Germany and France to provide technical advice for company acquisitions• Seal failure analysis and seal testing with direct customer involvement• Designed and built lab and equipment for CVD SiC testing: spectrophotometer, resistivity

Little Rock, Arkansas

• Responsible for manufacturing and process engineering on 25 high speed incandescent lamp manufacturing groups making 1 million lamps per day. • Project/Process Engineering, Statistical Process Control (SPC), Design of Experiments (DOE), and control systems were used with a goal of defect prevention, waste/cost reduction and process enhancement.• Troubleshooting, maintenance, training, and design improvements for high speed manufacturing groups and operator teams on a daily basis.• Developed and maintained a software database and interface to manage production and quality data for the plant and generate reports as needed• Teaching/Training of work force in a program to increase engagement and continuously improve their skills in Engineering, Physics, Chemistry, Statistics, and Critical Observation, leading to troubleshooting, improving quality, and reducing manufacturing costs.

Ms, Ceramic Engineering

Bs, Ceramic Engineering

Activities and Societies: Beta Sigma Psi