Leo Halm Email & Phone Number

Formulation of siloxane coating systems, technical service, product support, manufacturing support and environmental compliance.

Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida Area

Looking for a position as a Coatings Chemist/Formulator or as a Technical Service Engineer in the Southeastern US, specifically the Tampa, FL area. Skilled in the development and introduction of new products as well as the troubleshooting of new and existing products in customer facilities.

Problem Solving corrosion issues at customer locations - primarily steel corrosion but also multiple grades of aluminum, copper, brass, and zinc (galvanized) substrates. Performed as technical support for the entire North American sales force. My principle responsibility was problem solving in customer facilities to help them eliminate corrosion on their in-process parts as well as parts that have been released to their customers. This included responsibility for our technical help line as well as responding to online requests from our international tech service e-mail. I also spent time training customers and our sales force how to use new products. Part of the training was giving a “Corrosion 101” presentation to customer engineers. I also assisted in the transfer of new products to production and did some bench formulation.

Minnetonka, Mn

Project Management, Installation Planning, Scheduling, and Accounts Receivable for a small software company that provides back room accounting software for casino slot machine operations.

Developed colorants for a continuous wall panel application. This was a new business area for Interplastic. Made improvements to production methods and equipment to improve throughput by as much as 50%, with a 20% average across the product line. Replaced pigments and consolidated the pigment line to both reduce the number of pigments necessary for the color matching palate and to improve the quality and performance of the pigments.

Anderson, Sc

Installed and started up a new Cattinair automatic flat line painting system. Improved product yields from an initial 50% - 60% to a current 85% - 90%. Improvements came from process and formulation changes to adapt the new equipment to our environment. Also located alternate suppliers to reduce cost of raw materials as much as 20%.

Westminster, Sc

Worked as product development, laboratory, production, and general chemistry consultant for Dunlop Sports in their Golf Ball Manufacturing facility where we made Dunlop, Slazenger, and Maxfli golf balls.• Developed a method to increase rubber regrind usage leading to a potential cost savings of over $1,000,000/year.• Gradually implemented transfer efficiencies in the paint shop that led to a 30% - 40% reduction in paint usage, saving up to $2,000,000/year.• Brought in a series of coatings upgrades that improved yields from 77% to >95% and increased output from 22,000 dz. /day to 30,000 dz. /day.• Implemented the use of UV cure ink technology on production pad stamping.

St. Paul, Mn

3M Superabrasives and Microfinishing Systems Division • Developed a line of urethane based polishing abrasives for the fiber optics market that introduced a five-step process in place of our competitor’s nine-step process. These products resulted in an estimated $10 million of new business for our division.• Partnered with 3M manufacturing facilities to establish coating and converting processes and guidelines to achieve consistency and stability in new product lines. The ability to work with and motivate factory personnel resulted in being selected to shepherd improvements of new and existing products through manufacturing scale up.• Incorporated novel backings, materials, and processes to expand and grow our coatings competencies and potential.• Responded to specific market needs with polyester, epoxy, and urethane coatings for use in the ophthalmic and fiber optic polishing markets and for burnishing magnetic media.• Developed the first non-slurry polish for the fiber optic industry using polyvinyl alcohol and colloidal silica in a fixed abrasive slurry technology. This innovation resolved a need in the industry to eliminate liquid hazardous waste generated by wet slurry.• Teamed with manufacturing to resolve process issues and procedures for making our coatings using High Speed Cowles, Attritor, and Basket Mills and application with knife, gravure, slot-die, and turbo bells coatings methods.• 3M Circle of Technical Excellence Award winner for 2000.

St. Paul, Mn

3M Automotive Design Systems Division• Improved consistency, quality, and on-time service to our customers by bringing printing ink manufacturing back in-house.• Teamed with sales, technical service, and manufacturing in reformulating a key urethane film to remove mercury catalyst.• Identified and developed a series of new coating processes for out ink lines including: screen, roll, gravure, and offset printing.

3M - St. Paul, Mn

Contract Engineer/3M Science Research Laboratory• Recruited specifically to formulate coatings for a Department of Energy contract using proprietary cationic catalysts developed by 3M. Worked in epoxy, urethane, and UV chemistries.• Developed a method using visible light to cure highly pigmented coatings without heat.• Awarded two patents: US 5,212,210 and US 5,721,289.

Minneapolis, Mn

Responsible for development of both resins and coatings, especially high solids coatings. This position required familiarity with all areas of paint development, such as: resins, pigments, solvents, dispersants, wetting agents, thixotropes, catalysts, driers, defoamers, monomers, and rheological agents. The resin work included urethanes, epoxies, alkyds, acrylate, polyesters, UV systems, and others.

Bachelor Of Science, Organic Chemistry

Activities and Societies: Co-operative Education - IBM, Endicott, NY ISU Marching Band - Assistant Band Director Chemistry.

Bachelor Of Music Education, Music - Trumpet

Activities and Societies: Marching Band Glee Club Concert Band Orchestra Contemporary Wind Ensemble

Education record