Manufacturing Engineering Consultants: 6

Summit Associates of Bedford is a Materials and Manufacturing firm offering growth strategy, operations improvement, and international sourcing to commercial clients ranging in size from $3 to $150 million.

Summit Associates has a record of fixing troubled organizations and driving growth in complex technology based operations. Skilled at positioning small and middle market companies for sustained growth, they have commercial experience in ten countries, including creation and oversight of global partnerships in Europe and India and acquisition, sale, and licensing of fifteen technologies in seven countries.

Consulting Services:

Turnaround Leadership Organizational Change and Alignment Accelerated New Product / Market Development Product Launch

Lean Manufacturing Technology Acquisition Sale and Licensing International Partnerships Technology Valuation

Principal, Thomas W. Caldwell, PE, has over 40 years of experience in Materials Research and Development, Process and Product Development, and Manufacturing Operations in the Precision Cast and Machined Products industry.

Mr. Caldwell has designed and manufactured components for consumer and industrial products, including safety-critical applications such as aircraft landing gear brakes, seat belt lockup devices, windshield wiper, and window lift motor systems. He has experience creating and guiding technology development and manufacturing partnerships in Europe and Asia, licensing and selling intellectual property and creating supply chains in China.

Mr. Caldwell has lectured in the USA, Germany, Switzerland, and India on manufacturing premium quality metal products and manufacturing processes, and was a technical paper peer reviewer for 20 years for the Society of Automotive Engineers. A United States patent holder, he has published peer reviewed research in electrochemistry and materials processing, and has written and spoken numerous times on the subject of Materials Selection.

View Thomas A. Caldwell's Expert Witness Profile.

Expert Background: Dr. Thomas L. Read is the Principal and CEO at A. Read Consulting, LLC. He received his PhD. from Stanford University in 1972 and has over 25 years of manufacturing experience in electronics, metallurgy, factory safety, failure analysis, glass fracture, glass failure and bottle failure. As a member of the electronics industry, he has earned process patents and has an extensive background in manufacturing techniques. In parallel, Dr. Read has spent over twenty five years as a consultant to attorneys and engineers. He has given more than 100 depositions and has appeared in court numerous times. Company Profile: Read Consulting, LLC is a full service laboratory providing services in the following areas:

• Failure Analysis; Factory Safety and Personal Injury (including machine guards and manufacturing safety)
• Glass Failure Analysis - Glass Fracture, Glass Failures and Bottle Failure
• Metal and Ceramic Failure
• Grinding Wheel Failures
• Intellectual Property and Patent Disputes
• Product Liability and Product Quality
• Manufacturing Disagreements (such as Intellectual Property, Failed equipment and Contract Disputes)
• Reverse Engineering

Mechanical Solutions, Inc. (MSI) provides new equipment design, computer-aided analysis, installed equipment field testing and problem solutions. MSI staff performs these tasks for all types of Pumps, Compressors, Fans, Turbines, and Motors. For pumps and compressors, expertise includes both centrifugal and positive displacement (e.g. reciprocating or screw) configurations.  Turbine knowledge and experience include hydraulic turbine generators (“hydroturbines”) as well as aircraft gas turbine engines and land-based gas or steam turbine power generation systems. Applications include green energy, power, process, petrochemical, paper, and water resource industries.

MSI uses advanced finite element analysis (FEA), rotordynamics, and torsional analysis tools, and uses computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to analyze 3-D steady or unsteady fluid flows and heat transfer, enabled by its 230 high speed processor supercomputer. MSI also uses top-of-the-line testing equipment, including multichannel FFT analyzers (up to 200 simultaneous channels) to accurately read the outputs of various vibration, stress/strain, and pressure sensors, as a function of both time and frequency. As a unique additional test capability, MSI uses motion magnification video cameras to amplify and display scene vibration by 1000x. MSI uses calibrated exciters while equipment remains running, to locate structural, rotor, and acoustic natural frequency resonances as they exist at any particular operating point, without interfering with machinery operation.  In addition, MSI performs stress, acoustic, dynamic pressure pulsation, electric current spectrum, and aero/hydraulic performance testing. 

MSI also has been project team leader in the development of advanced rocket turbopumps, as well as turbopump diagnostics, for the U.S. Air Force and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. MSI is funded for several large projects with the U.S. Navy and Air Force involving vision-based systems that automatically evaluate and display/amplify machinery or system dynamic events.  As a result of these projects, MSI has developed its VibVue® vibration motion magnification system, which can magnify vibration 1000x in the full field-of-view of the equipment.  This system is available as a service, or for purchase.

Mechanical Solutions has a staff of approximately 30 technical professionals, many of whom are well known internationally in the area of pumps, compressors, and turbines.  For example, MSI’s Dr. Edward Bennett won the ASME Gopalakrishnan award for best pump fluids technologist, and was later awarded another ASME medal for CFD.    MSI’s Paul Boyadjis has won the Hydraulic Institute 2021 Standards Partner of the Year award. Since its founding in 1996, MSI has strived to provide best-in-class service throughout the world.

William D. Marscher has over 50 years of experience in the field of Fluid Systems and their rotating and reciprocating machinery, particularly large turbines, generators, compressors, and pumps.  His typical work responsibilities include design, analysis, and testing of all types of plant machinery, as well as other types of fluid and mechanical systems.   

Mr. Marscher received a B.S.M.E. from Cornell University in 1970, and a Master Eng. (Mech. Des.) in 1972, when he was a NASA Fellow and the lead graduate student for the original Mars Rover Design project.  In 1976, he received an M.Sc. in Engineering Physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is a registered and licensed Professional Engineer, State of New Jersey Lic. No. 40626.

For 25 years, Mr. Marscher has been one of the U.S. voting representatives on the ISO (International Standards Organization) TC108 committee, and has been the US Coordinator concerning, among other issues, machinery dynamics of centrifugal pumps and hydraulic turbine generators. He is past president of the Society of Tribologists & Lubrication Engineers (STLE), the primary technical society worldwide for the study and design of bearings, seals, wear, and erosion issues in machinery.  For the past 45 years he has been a voting member of the ASTM Fatigue Standards Committee E9, as well as the ASTM Wear & Erosion Standards Committee G2.  He is also the past Board of Directors Chairman for the Machinery Failure Prevention Technology Society (MFPT), and has been active in the Vibration Institute.   Mr. Marscher is a 23-year member of the Texas A&M Turbine-Pump Users Symposium Advisory Committee (essentially the Board of Directors for the Symposium).   For ASME, Mr. Marscher was Chair of the Predictive Maintenance committee, and was Organizing and Presiding Chair of the 1993 RoCon Rotating Machinery Conference and the 1995 Tribology Conference.

Mr. Marscher has written thirteen handbook chapters for various major engineering handbooks, which have focused on turbomachinery mechanical issues, including dynamics, and bearing and seal design   In previous employ, he was a senior engineer Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Engines, and Director of Mechanical Engineering for Worthington HQ (pumps, compressors, and turbines), and for Dresser Worthington Division after their acquisition of Worthington.   Later, he was VP of Concepts NREC, from which 30 years ago he spun off Mechanical Solutions, Inc. as an independent turbomachinery technology company.  He has since become a charter Standards Partner for the Hydraulic Institute (HI), the trade association for the pump industry, became Vice Chair of the vibration technical committee for HI, and was HI Standards Partner of the Year for 2018.   He also won the 2019 Vibration Institute MFPT Frarey Award for Diagnostics Excellence.

View MSI's Expert Witness Profile.

JOHN A. WILLIAMS, PhD, PE, ASA, MBA, CFEI, AIChE Fellow

Dr. Williams is an International Engineering and Energy Technology Expert in the engineering analysis and financial appraisals of energy, power, and manufacturing technologies, related intellectual property (patents, trade secrets, trademarks), licensing, royalty structures, market analysis, infringement, contract breach, fraud, compensatory, taxation, and lost profit damages. Dr. Williams provides engineering analysis, forensics, financial appraisals, and quantification of economic damages for oil & gas production, solar, wind, manufacturing, oil refining, chemicals, power generation, electrical distribution, steam, RNG biogas, biomass, ethanol, biodiesel, bioprocessing, food ingredients, geothermal, coal, nuclear, steelmaking, glassmaking, storage, pipelines, water treatment, and waste-to-energy technologies, equipment, construction, and facilities.

With over 40 years of industry experience in operations, R&D, cost estimating, finance, and construction (EPC, EPCM), Dr. Williams offers a unique synergy of engineering expertise and business acumen. His exceptional ability to analyze complex technical and financial matters and express them in understandable terms has made him a sought-after expert witness in litigation risk and exposure, dispute resolution and high-stakes litigation.

Dr. Williams has led EPS, a full-service engineering firm, since 1995. Since 1996, he has been recognized by AIChE, ASME, and ASA for developing and instructing courses in technology development, project management, cost engineering, financial evaluation methods, and financial appraisals of technologies and intellectual property. His credentials include:

• Accredited Senior Appraiser (ASA) by the American Society of Appraisers in Machinery & Technical Specialties: Energy, Environmental, and Manufacturing Technologies.
• Certified Fire and Explosion Investigator (CFEI) by the National Association of Fire Investigators.
• Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.
• PhD in Chemical and Fuels Engineering from the University of Utah
• MBA in Finance from the University of Chicago
• BS in Chemistry from the University of Delaware
• Licensed Professional Engineer in over 20 states

Biernath Consulting helps small to midsized companies envision how AI and other advanced science & technology can help grow their business. He helps them create and implement innovative solutions to achieve success.

Rolf Biernath, PhD in Chemical Engineering, has over 30 years in the Chemicals and Electronics Industries with a concentration on AI advanced technology new product development. He developed new products and product lines at 3M for 31 years in senior technical roles. His 58 issued US patents span a broad range of scientific and engineering disciplines. 

Rolf has a strong drive to find the simplest and most effective solutions that meet customer needs and business objectives. His broad technical background and his resourceful ability to learn new fields quickly make him an ideal partner to help turn product's into fully realized new products and services. If it can be done, he'll find the way. If not, he'll tell you why, and let you know what advances might enable it in the future.

Rolf also works with VC and Angel Investors to assess a startup's new technology odds of technical and business success. He is known for his ability to break down complex technical problems and find the critical aspects that will make or break a new product. This helps investors ensure that financial investments are used to target the highest risks first, thereby reducing the money and time wasted chasing after products that may likely never see the light of day.

Consultant Specialties:

New Product Innovation Manufacturing Innovation Adhesives and Tapes Generative AI Prompt Engineering Root Cause Identification Chemical Engineering

Smart Devices IoT Devices IIoT Sensors Electromechanical Assemblies

Background Experience - Dr. Biernath has 58 Issued US Patents on New Products, including:

• Industrial Adhesives and Tapes – 3D printing materials, development, automation, and tape application processes
• Electronic Displays and optical display films, outdoor digital displays, backlights, LED color mixing
• Electronic Materials, epoxy thermoset adhesives, application process, elastomeric, high speed electronic connectors
• Signage, retroreflective signage, license plate recognition, ADAS, Human Invisible, Machine-Readable Coding System
• IoT and IIoT, Automatic and predictive selection and replacement of controllers, novel low-cost oil-detection sensor
• Microreplication, microfluidics, textured adhesives and processes

View Dr. Rolf Biernath's Expert Witness Profile.

William R. Acorn is founder of Acorn Consulting Services, LLC, an engineering firm. As a consulting mechanical engineer, Bill provides project analysis, forensic reconstructions and litigation support services relating to the design, delivery, and functioning of high-tech manufacturing facilities, semiconductor fabrication facilities, institutional laboratories, data centers, health care facilities and a variety of commercial buildings. He is a recognized expert in the evaluation of deficiencies in HVAC systems, cleanrooms, piping systems, refrigeration systems, construction defects, building and fire code compliance, and patent and trade secret disputes. He represents both plaintiffs and defendants.

Bill has more than 40 years of experience as a professional engineer and is a recognized expert in assessing, evaluating, remediating and providing testimony on complex project design, construction and operational matters. His consulting expertise has been influential in shaping approaches to code compliance and life safety in semiconductor and similar advanced technology facilities.

Certifications and Designations:

• Registered as a Professional Mechanical Engineer in the States of Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Washington.
• Registered with the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying NCEES (Certificate No. 6999)
• Fellow in the HVAC industry leading organization ASHRAE
• Visiting lecturer at the Arizona State University Del E. Webb School of Construction in Tempe, AZ
• Advisor to CREATE, ACE – Alliance for Construction Excellence and the IAB – Industry Advisory Board, all affiliated with ASU

Building Systems Analysis:

HVAC and Refrigeration Process and Power Piping Plumbing Systems Standard of Care in Design and Construction

Chemical Exposures in the Workplace Cleanroom Design and Performance Codes and Standards Patent and Trade Secret Disputes

Litigation Support: Bill’s pragmatic approach to both forensic and litigation consulting as well as project consulting is based on more than 40 years of real-world experience as a design professional, mentor and forensic analyst, as well as many years as an instructor in professional and academic settings. Represented both plaintiffs and defendants in a variety of jurisdictions throughout the US and Asia. Bill’s ability to explain complex issues to non-technical audiences, including juries, mediators and judges, is a key to successfully solving your litigation challenges.

• Forensic Analysis
• Strategic Litigation Consulting
• Trial Demonstratives
• Expert Testimony

Acorn Consulting Services

Consulting Services: Services range from peer review to conceptual design to development of strategies and programs for expedited project delivery.

Bill frequently acts as an owner’s agent and mentor, functioning as an extension of the owner’s project team. On other projects, Bill serves as a subject matter expert assisting project delivery firms in their development of viable solutions and review of construction documents.

As a project consultant, Bill assures the project gets off to the right start and provides his expertise through completion and operation to maximize return on investment.

Consulting Expertise Includes:

• Project Design and Management Consulting
• Forensic Analysis and Litigation Consulting
• Mentoring & Advanced Education