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Thiyagarajan Natarajan

+1-262-***-**** Email : ac7y83@r.postjobfree.com

Career Summary

Qualified professional with strategic technology development skills that drive new product development in the area of advanced ceramics through innovative ideas for critical applications. Responsible for prototype manufacturing, testing, process design, development, improvement, analysis and documentation for program support. Day-to-day support to all R&D and manufacturing related queries & hands-on experience on a variety of materials development for high-tech applications.

Technical & Analytical Skills

Advanced ceramic powder process techniques using spray drying with 95% solvent recovery to handle sensitive materials, freeze granulation and other powder mixing processes.

Sintering of ceramics (Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS), pressure-less sintering, reactive & hot- pressing techniques)

Advanced structural ceramics like SiC composites, Si3N4+Diamond ceramics for wear resistance application

Super-hard ceramic composites (SiC with borides & carbides) with 1.2 GPa strength and 30 GPa hardness

Coatings for high performance mechanical seals (Graphene nano-platelets, DLC & Diamond)

Functional Gradient Ceramic seals (FGM) for critical applications

Production & QC support for SiC and Carbon based mechanical seals

Mechanical properties evaluation such as 3-pt. & 4-pt. bending tests, hardness measurement, fracture toughness, elastic modulus and Weibull modulus

Evaluation of tribological property studies on seal material using PoD and seal test

Failure & Forensic analysis

Education

Degree Type Year

Ph.D Materials Science (Ceramics) 1997

M.Phil Materials Science 1991

M.Sc. Physics – Materials Science 1990

Employment History

Period Organisation Role

Jan. 2016 to Nov. 2018 John Crane Inc., USA Materials Engineering Manager

Jan 2015 to Dec. 2016 John Crane Inc., USA Senior Materials Engineer

Mar 2012 to Dec 2015 John Crane UK Ltd., Slough, UK Senior Materials Technologist

Thiyagarajan Natarajan Ceramic Materials Process Engineer 2

Period Organisation Role

Oct 2005 to Feb 2012

International Advanced Research

Centre, Hyderabad, India.

Team Leader

Centre for Non-oxide

Ceramics

Aug 2001 to July 2005 International Advanced Research Centre, Hyderabad, India.

Scientist-D

Ceramics Materials

Division

Feb 1997 to July 2001 International Advanced Research Centre, Hyderabad, India.

Scientist-B & C

Ceramics Materials

Division

Feb 1995 to Jan 1997 Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory, Hyderabad, India.

Ceramic Process

Consultant

Apr 1992 to Jan 1995 Anna University, Madras, India. Senior Research Associate under CSIR

Fellowship

Research Projects Completed

o Establishment of advanced ceramic powder process facility for ceramic composites (Pilot scale production facility)

o Developed SiC & Si3N4 based ceramic mechanical seals through FAST/SPS technology up to 250 mm dia

o Processing of high toughness ceramic seals with graphene reinforcement Completed the 3D metal printing project for the development of coupling parts through DMLS process. (Won the Smiths Group’s Excellence Award – 2016)

o Development of G-SiC ceramic seals and transferred to production – Cost saving to JC-USA is about $3.5m.

o Testing of seals using PoD, Tribo and Vessel seal tests at high pressure and different environment

o Establishment of manufacturing facilities like sintering furnace, hot press, cold iso-static press, chemical vapour deposition system for SiC coating and CNC machining facilities for the production of silicon carbide mirror substrates for space optics upto 1000 mm diameter – Project executed in India (Total Project Cost: 10 million US$). o Processing, characterization and qualification studies on the pressureless sintered SiC ceramics and CVD coated SiC process for space optics application. o Process technology for making reaction bonded SiC bearings and bushes for critical application

(nuclear submarine components).

o Development, optimization of process technology for making light weight single piece body armour with silicon carbide, boron carbide and titanium boride through hot-pressing and pressureless sintering

o Development of aqueous gelcasting process for making near-net shape SiAlON ceramic parts for Radome application

o Development of C/C-Si/SiC ceramic vanes for aerospace application Specialised Project Experience

Materials Engineering Manager, John Crane Inc., USA (Jan. 2015 – Nov. 2018)

Establishment of Advanced Ceramic Manufacturing Facility

• Advanced spray drying pilot-scale facility to process non-oxide ceramics (SiC, Si3N4-Diamond, ultra-hard ceramics) with different toughening / tribo additives to manufacture seal faces - (Won the Smiths Group’s Excellence Award – 2017)

• Sintering of ceramic seals by spark plasma sintering up to 250 mm dia using external sintering facility

• Developed powder recipes for various ceramics trough innovating process technique Thiyagarajan Natarajan Ceramic Materials Process Engineer 3

Forensic & Failure Analysis of Mechanical Seals

• Support customer and sales through detailed analysis for the cause of failure & prevent recurrence and report submission

• Analysis & Evaluation of in-house seal performance tests and provide expertise

• Expansion of materials characterization laboratory with advanced facilities

New Material Development, Quality Control & Production Support

• Qualification of new powder mixture production batches through property evaluation and testing

• Established quality control procedure for the production of mechanical seal parts at John Crane Crystal Lake Operations

• Qualification of new material through seal performance tests Senior Materials Technologist, John Crane UK Limited (March 2012 – Dec. 2015)

Development of C-SiC Ceramics for Wet Seal Application

• Optimisation of raw materials composition, process parameters for spray drying of SiC+C powder mixture slurries

• Sintering and characterisation for physical, mechanical, thermal and tribological properties

• Up-scaling the process to pilot scale production

Establishment of Advanced Ceramic Powder Process Laboratory at John Crane-Slough

• Set-up ceramic powder process facility like ball milling, rotary evaporator, spray drying, granulation etc., to produce the powder mixture to develop functional ceramic composites

• Ultrasonic dispersion facility to disperse secondary phases in ceramic matrix

• Planning, procurement and set-up other allied facilities required for powder process

Development of Nano-Structured Ceramics for Mechanical Seals Application

• Successful development of fine grain SiC ceramics with different additives to enhance both tribo and mechanical properties using nano and submicron SiC powders through SPS sintering

• Realisation of functional gradient ceramic material through SPS sintering

• Properties evaluation (physical, mechanical and thermal)

• Successful development of both seal and face ring components for 28XP using SPS

(John Crane has pioneered the successful adoption of the SPS sintering technology to develop seal components)

• Processing and characterization of SiC composites using borides equivalent to EkaSiC-TP

Initiated a project for the making complex shaped Ti-based coupling through ALM (3D) technology

• Successfully developed SS316 based coupling parts through DMLS 3D printing technology -

(Won the Smiths Group’s Excellence Award – 2016)

Team Leader, Centre for Non-oxide Ceramics International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy & New Materials Hyderabad, India (Feb. 1996 – February 2012)

Development of low emissive coating for high solar absorber using ITO through sol-gel process

• Sol-gel process (wet chemical process) has been developed with optimized process parameters

• Characterization of the coating material for thermal, mechanical and microstructural properties

Establishment of production facility for the manufacture of CVD coated silicon carbide substrate for space optics

• Planning, procurement, installation and commissioning of capital equipment like high temperature vacuum sintering furnace (1500 mm dia effective hot-zone, 2300 C) hydraulic press (1500 tons capacity), cold iso-static press (1100 mm vessel dia x 1000 mm height & 4 K bar pressure), chemical vapour deposition system for CVD coating (reactor zone size : 1800 mm ht x 1300 mm dia), 5 axes CNC machining centre for green machining and 3 axes ultrasonic machining centre for the machining of sintered products

• Developed and optimized of process parameters for manufacture of sintered silicon carbide substrates up to 1000 mm dia

Thiyagarajan Natarajan Ceramic Materials Process Engineer 4

• Optimized the process parameters for making CVD silicon carbide

• Process qualification studied were conducted successfully for both silicon carbide substrate and CVD coated substrate.

• Optimized the machining parameters for light-weighting by green machining and final polishing of the SiC substrate

• Failure analysis of large mirror to develop defect free substrates

Development of aqueous gelcasting process for making silicon nitride based ceramics

• Optimisation of process parameters for the formation of β-SiAlON through conventional powder pressing technique and aqueous gel-casting process.

• Characterisation of β-SiAlON sintered parts for physical, mechanical, microstructural and dielectric properties for radome application

• Break-through : In-house development of water resistance AlN powder (as there is no manufacturer of this material : patent filed)

• The process developed has been successfully adopted and up-scaled for the development of prototype radome having dimension 100 mm dia x 180 mm long.

Development of light weight ceramic armour

• Installation and commissioning of 450 tons high temperature vacuum hot-press (1200 mm dia x 1600 mm height hot zone with maximum temperature capability of 23000C)

• Development of process technology for making reaction bonded boron carbide for armour application

• Successful development of silicon carbide and boron carbide based body armour single chest piece through hot-press technique

• Development of process technology for the development of RB-B4C and SiC-TiB2 composite with improved toughness for vehicle armour application

• Ballistic testing on the developed ceramics against Level III & IV threats Ph.D Thesis Title: Processing and Characterization of Reaction Formed SiC Based Ceramic Matrix Composites (Awarded August 1997)

Awards

1. Best component development award for the development of Reaction Bonded Silicon Carbide

(RBSC) bearing bushes and seals for Indian naval submarine application at the International Conference on Powder Metallurgy held in India during 1998. 2. Best Research Scientist Award for the successful development and production of one meter diameter CVD coated SiC space optics (2009)

3. Won the Smiths Group’s Excellence Award in 2016 for the development of complex coupling parts through 3D metal printing DMLS technology

4. Won the Smiths Group’s Technology Excellence Award in 2017 for the development of SiC+GNP ceramics with high toughness and enhanced tribo performance for mechanical seal applicaton.

General Details

Address Dr. Thiyagarajan Natarajan

6203, 106th Ave

Kenosha, WI 53142

+1-262-***-****

ac7y83@r.postjobfree.com

Nationality Indian

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