Ian Winters Email & Phone Number

I am the Chief Scientist for a startup working on computer vision in the railspace, gravitronics, and general engineering and scientific consulting.

Houston, Texas, Us

Senior Product Engineer designing elastomer systems with emphasis on seals and sealing systems.

Houston, Texas, Us

Lead Scientist and Materials Engineering Subject Matter Expert in the Flexible Pipe Systems (FPS), a startup within the Baker Hughes company family. Directs the materials selection and development in the design and manufacture of a new product line of flexible onshore pipeline systems using thermoplastics and composites.• Optimize manufacturing processes for thermoplastic and composite components of manufacturing to reduce scrap and waste.• Direct the projects for the qualification of materials and material structures to API 15S and costumer requirements. This involves working with external testing vendors, acquiring internal testing resources, and establishing protocols and timelines for efficient execution of pipeline qualification and product launches.

Houston, Texas, Us

Lead Elastomer Engineer in the Seals Center of Excellence. Designed and qualified seals and rubber formulations for oil and gas applications with particular emphasis on Blowout Preventers (API 16A). Improved testing and analysis to reduce time required for qualification.• Advanced support to manufacturing and customers in the field through evaluations of as-used rubber compounds from a structure-property standpoint in relation to its performance in-use.• Created a technique for determining the degree of cure in as-molded rubber compounds using Dynamic Mechanical Analysis. Related the DMA data to information gained from rheometry and other mechanical tests to create a means of predicting performance.• Formulated a framework for importing and analyzing testing data via Python. Created a toolkit for transforming the data into Abaqus models that could be used by the mechanical design team to better predict seal performance.• Instituted a methodology that improved the predictability of rubber compounds in fatigue applications. Based on those results, directed manufacturing in the necessary changes to the rubber compounding and molding processes that would result in improved fatigue performance.

New York, New York, Us

Guided by Design of Experiment principles, shepherded cradle-to-customer development of new products and technologies using emulsion polymerization for polymer-based modification of engineering thermoplastic and thermoset resin systems.• Named inventor on a pending patent application filed as provisional in the general area of modifier technologies. The patent was the first for Kaneka that was incepted and fully developed outside of the central R&D group in Japan, launching an entire new product line for the company. This patent enables greater use of recycled and regrind materials in condensation polymer (such as PET, polycarbonate, and PLA) without degradation of (or even enhancing) strength and impact resistance without compromising optical properties.• Managed the scale-up of new products from lab synthesis and characterization to pilot polymerizations and customer plant trials to the first several full production runs of the new product.• Collaborated directly with customers to tune the product to their individual processes and design constraints during the development process. This requires deep knowledge on the customers’ production techniques ranging from: blending (including thermosets and adhesives) and compounding, injection molding, profile and sheet extrusion, fiber and textile spinning, 3D printing (SLA and FDM) and composite pultrusion, etc.• Championed the Kaneka Manufacturing and Technical teams to troubleshoot production issues, improve existing production processes, and introduce new methods to the production environment.• Introduced the Lean Startup philosophy and methodologies to decrease the development cycle iteration time and instill entrepreneurial attitudes. Lean Startup ideas have been particularly useful as the mentor for and manager of student interns and co-ops.

Houston, Texas, Us

Guided the thermoplastic materials selection and qualification for flexible pipelines made using only plastics and composites (API 17J) at an Oil and Gas startup introducing a novel non-metallic flexible pipeline for the subsea market.• Acted as the internal subject matter expert and external representative for matters involving thermoplastics including engineering, qualification, manufacturing, failure analysis, etc.• Optimized and troubleshooted the existing manufacturing processes and equipment for a range of composite, thermoset, and thermoplastic materials.

Atlanta, Georgia , Us

Specialized in the rheology, structure-property relations, morphology, thermo-mechanical behavior, and processing of polymers, polymer solutions, and polymer blends.• Work culminated in a thesis introducing a new method for driving the separation of polymer blends and characterizing the physics behind that process.

Master Of Science - Ms, Computer Science

Phd, Polymer Engineering

Bs, Materials Science And Engineering