Coatings - Sealants - Paint Expert Witnesses: 5

Sean Brossia, PhD, is a Corrosion, Materials, Mechanical Integrity, Reliability, and Industrial Equipment Failure expert with more than 30 years of experience across chemical, refining, pharmaceutical, paper, pipeline, manufacturing, and industrial facilities. He also has experience in aerospace, ground vehicle, agricultural and industrial equipment, biomedical implants, consumer packaging, and infrastructure assets. Through Vulcan Integrity, he provides expert witness and litigation support for matters involving corrosion damage, materials degradation, inspection adequacy, risk-based inspection, mechanical integrity, maintenance and reliability practices, material selection, and equipment failure causation.

Litigation Support - Dr. Brossia's litigation support includes case merit review, technical document review, failure analysis review, causation analysis, inspection and maintenance program evaluation, standard-of-care assessment, expert reports, rebuttal support, deposition testimony, and trial testimony. He has testified and been deposed, has supported both defense and plaintiff matters, and has never had his opinions excluded.

Dr. Brossia’s opinions are grounded in engineering principles, available data, physical evidence, operating history, inspection records, industry standards, and recognized and generally accepted good engineering practices. He is experienced with API, ASME, ASTM, AMPP/NACE, PHMSA, OSHA, EPA, PIP, and RAGAGEP-related expectations, and has participated in standards development activities.

Areas of Expertise:

Dr. Brossia is known for explaining complex corrosion, materials, reliability, and mechanical integrity issues in clear, practical terms that attorneys, judges, arbitrators, and juries can understand. His background includes leadership roles in engineering, maintenance, reliability, corrosion management, fixed equipment integrity, research and development, asset integrity consulting, and corrosion monitoring technology. He is a NACE/AMPP Fellow, has over 80 publications and book chapters, and holds multiple patents related to corrosion monitoring and sensing technologies.

Professor Christopher J. Tennant, PhD, CIH, has over 40 years of experience in the field of Environmental Health and Industrial Hygiene. He is Board Certified in the Comprehensive Practice of Industrial Hygiene. Dr. Tennant is currently President, CEO, and Principal Consultant at San Joaquin Environmental, in Fresno California, where he consults with Federal, State, County, City, various public agencies, and private industry sectors from public housing to Aerospace. His services are available in all 50 US States and the United Kingdom.

Dr. Tennant also serves as Professor Emeritus for the Department of Public Health at Fresno State University where he's taught Environment Health, Industrial Hygiene, and Occupational Health and Safety for 35 years at both undergraduate and post graduate levels.

Litigation Support - Dr. Tennant has been retained by numerous insurances companies and law firms on various Industrial Hygiene matters throughout the US, including workers compensation, property damage, personal injury, and wrongful death. He has testified as an expert witness in Federal Court, Superior Court, and Workers Compensation Appeals Board over 100 times. He's been deposed many more times. 

Areas of Expertise:

Michael A. Pollock, PE, USPTO, is a Mechanical Engineer responsible for the design and engineering of commercial, industrial, manufacturing, institutional, and residential venues, as well as efforts relating to services and products used in and around these facilities. Mr. Pollock's full CV can be viewed at cogentexpert.com.

Business and industries include electronics, safety and construction, building materials, polymers and plastics, instrumentation manufacturing, petrochemicals, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, colleges, athletic facilities, textiles, coatings and resins, food storage, biosciences, supermarkets, inks & pigments, automotive, facility and real estate operations, agricultural, transportation, nuclear, healthcare, nutrition, retail, distributors, pulp and paper, packaging, utilities, apparel, and R&D centers.

Litigation Support - Mr. Pollock is a subject matter expert in Commercial and Industrial Engineering Applications and Projects, as well as engineering standards and applicable codes (ASHRAE, ASME, NIST, NFPA, NBIC, ASTM, SAE, LEED, ASCE, GMP, ISA, BOCA, and EPA Regulations.) He has engaged with local, state, and governmental officials and agencies regarding numerous matters over his commensurate years of experience.

Areas of Expertise:

Registrations

• Professional Engineer: PA (PE075410)
• American Bar Association (ABA) – Construction Forum
• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Clean Air Act Certification – Universal (includes Chillers, HVAC & Refrigeration)
• United States Patent & Trademark Office Registered (USPTO)                              

Forensic Consulting Experience

Warehouse Distribution Facility – Maryland - Evaluated a $10M (million) claim relating to purported construction defect claims by the 600,000 sq. ft. facility owner against the facility construction contractor and an original equipment manufacturer relating to installed infrastructure in the facility. Developed an expert opinion and expert report regarding the analysis of the purported defects and a proposed repair solution to correct said defects. 

 Psychiatric Hospital Facility – North Carolina – Evaluated a $28M (million) construction claim by the general contractor against a hospital facility concerning a $100M facility construction project.  Developed an expert opinion and report for general construction issues, constructability, design revisions, and corresponding delay analysis for mechanical, HVAC, electrical, smoke and fire, structural, security and building automation systems. 

Forensics Consulting Work-in-Progress 

• 2022 – International Trade Commission (ITC) Matter – Resin Manufacturing Facility Construction Delay / Completeness Analysis
• 2022 – Mechanical Systems Coatings Matter Analysis
• 2021 – Industrial Manufacturing Facility Standard of Care Matter, Construction Defect, Construction Delay     
• 2021 – Electrical Distribution System Construction Defect Matter, Standard of Care
• 2021 – Hotel Facility HVAC Materials of Construction Related Defect Matter

Dr. Rolf Biernath, PhD, Chemical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, and BChE, Georgia Institute of Technology) has over 35 years of experience in the Chemical Industry with a concentration on Polymer Science and Engineering and Material Science Fracture Mechanics. He worked in Materials and Processes at 3M for 31 years in senior technical roles developing materials, processes, and systems. His 58 US patents span a broad range of scientific and engineering disciplines.

Litigation Support - Dr. Biernath is a Patent & Civil Liability Expert Witness having worked with in-house and outside attorneys in prior art searches. He's drafted claims and strategized claims in a variety of fields. He has written Expert Reports for Civil Liability, including material failure analysis, computer simulation, and manufacturing assessment. He is known for his ability to explain complex technical problems simply.

Areas of Expertise:

Background Experience - Dr. Biernath has 58 Issued US Patents on new products and processes, including:

• Industrial Adhesives and Tapes – materials selection, development, automation, and tape application processes
• Electronic Materials – epoxy thermoset adhesives & application process, high speed electronic connectors
• Electronic Displays and optical display films, outdoor digital displays
• Microreplication and textured adhesives and processes, microfluidics, e-Paper
• Signage – retroreflective signage, license plate recognition, ADAS, and Human Invisible, Machine-Readable Coding System
• IoT and IIoT / Automatic and predictive selection and replacement

Dr. Biernath has expertise in stresses in planar systems due to a range of causes including, thermal expansion mismatch, humidity and solvent uptake or loss, and cure shrinkage. He understands assembly processes for tapes and adhesives including interpreting Technical Data Sheets, Application Data Sheets, developing test methods, and selecting materials.

View Biernath Consulting, Inc.'s Business Consultant Profile.

Dr. Charles R. Anderson has long specialized in the Characterization of Surfaces, Interfaces, Thin Films and Coatings. Since 1972 he has applied surface and near-surface analysis techniques such as x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS or ESCA) and Auger microprobe to the solution of surface chemistry and coating problems. 

Dr. Anderson worked for the U.S. Navy and Lockheed Martin Laboratories prior to starting his own laboratory in 1995. He served as an officer of the ASTM Committee E-42 on Surface Analysis and as U.S. Expert on several sub-committees of the ISO Technical Committee 201 on Surface Chemical Analysis. He especially enjoys integrating the results of multiple analytic techniques (surface analysis, thermal analysis, FTIR, SEM/EDX, optical microscopy)to solve tough materials problems.

Litigation Support -  Dr. Anderson has extensive experience in materials science as a result of solving the materials problems of many industries with the aid many analytical techniques. He is available to provide Expert Witness Services for legal matters involving Materials Failure, Intellectual Property Theft, Misrepresentation, Failure to Meet Contract Specifications, Materials Identifications and Characteristics, or Quality Issues. To ensure the accuracy and integrity of his testimony, Dr. Anderson and his staff independently analyze the relevant materials in most cases.

 View Consulting Profile.