Kirk Valko Email & Phone Number

St Charles, Illinois, United States

Arlington Heights, Il

Worked directly with customer and sales team to develop molded expanded foam polymer packaging and components. Balanced product protection requirements in overall distribution environment with associated costs to design practical packaging utilizing foam, wood, and corrugated materials.• Created customer-facing expanded foam products with high end cosmetic surface finishes• Launched returnable tote system into medical device company for significant cost and damage reduction• Developed cost-neutral packaging to eliminate damage in direct-ship automotive battery application• Integrated new expanded foam components inside HVAC and medical devices for air ducting, thermal insulation, and sound reduction as well as part count and assembly cost reduction• Introduced new expanded foam components into home furnishings for 50% weight savings and 30% reduction in assembled parts count while reducing hazards to assembly personnel• Machined CNC prototypes for presentation, ISTA and ASTM testing and certification• Estimate production costs and steam chest mold tooling layouts• Coached customers through designing with expanded foam including Design for Manufacture review and rework of customer-developed designs• Researched new equipment to improve existing production processes• Installed and refurbished 3-axis CNC for improved prototyping capabilities and throughput• Implemented and administered SolidWorks Enterprise PDM• Administrated and developed SharePoint system for project management queue

Dekalb, Illinois, United States

Coordinated technical resources for thermoformed products from initial concept to commercialization and through product life cycle.• Ensured successful and on-time project completion. Supported company-wide sustainability efforts through material research and testing. Designed and researched new Heat Seal tooling and Radio Frequency welding applications.• Introduced sustainable materials and compatible seal tooling and card stock in high speed automation environment for Fortune 500 cosmetics company to support worldwide company initiative to eliminate PVC films

Dekalb, Illinois, United States

Designed thin gauge thermoforms for consumer packaged goods and medical industries.• Designed new consumer and end user friendly high-security, high-visibility thermoformed blister packages. Communicated with sales to establish and fulfill customer goals. Designed and problem-solved production form and seal tooling• Developed company-wide part library in Solidworks to speed up design process and standardize product fit throughout product lines

Circleville, Oh

Designed and prototyped new corrugated packaging and point of purchase displays.• Designed ArtiosCAD standards for frequently used customer-specific corrugated containers• Designed layouts and qualified specifications for rotary die-cut tooling.• Perform customer audits to improve function, cost, and sustainability. • Set up automatic calculation of percent waste in designs for plant-wide tracking and cost-analysis• Designed ArtiosCAD standards for frequently used customer-specific corrugated containers• Managed temp employees responsible for daily quality testing• Automated data entry process for daily quality testing in Microsoft Excel

Bachelor Of Science (B.S.), Packaging

Activities and Societies: IoPP

Master Of Science (M.S.), Packaging

Activities and Societies: • IoPP Institute of Packaging Professionals • COGS - School of Packaging Council of Graduate Student.