Meet the Editorial Advisory Board

Time-Compression Technologies would like to take the opportunity to introduce our EAB members. Each has extensive experience in the rapid product development industry and helps guide the direction of this publication.

Gary Allen heads the Prototype Division of Omni Technologies Inc. (Greendale, IN), a material application engineering company. Gary has more than 20 years of experience in custom manufacturing, prototype tooling and using RP technologies. His expertise lies in RP, RTV tooling and epoxy tooling for short-run production in the packaging industry, automated assembly products and paper converting industries. Gary also serves as a consultant to the National Security Agency and Department of Defense in the area of material processing and manufacturing methods.

Andy Christensen has been in the medical device industry since 1992 and is currently the president of Medical Modeling LLC (Golden, CO), a medical rapid manufacturing service bureau. He has been involved in several thousand patient cases where “tactile imaging” models have been used for surgical planning, implant design and surgical navigation in the U.S. and around the globe. Andy has authored two book chapters and numerous articles on the use of additive fabrication technology within the medical field. He is also a contributor to the annual Wohlers Report. Andy has an active interest in medical applications of RP&M, direct metal fabrication, biomaterials research, image processing and prosthetic design.

Carl K. Dekker is the president of Met-L-Flo, Inc., (Sugar Grove, IL) a growing service center for additive manufacturing. Carl has presented at various conferences and has also provided training for Motorola, Abbott Laboratories, Delphi and other locations. His work has been published in industry journals including Wohlers Report (2003 - 2007), Prototyping Technology and the Rapid Prototyping Report.

Past Chairperson of SME’s Rapid Technologies and Additive Manufacturing (RTAM) Community, Carl currently serves as a steering committee member, Chair of the DDM Tech Group, teaches the RTAM Certificate Programs and remains active in the Bright Minds Program. Additional positions held include: Rapid Prototyping and Manufacturing Conference advisor (2002 - 2008), National Design and Manufacturing Conference Advisor 2005, National Plastics Exposition Conference advisor 2006 and Chair of many specialty programs and conference sessions. He has also served as the 2003 and 2004 Secretary of the 3D Systems North American Stereolithography Users Group.

Tim Gornet is manager of RP Operations with the University of Louisville’s J.B Speed Engineering School. He is responsible for the technical aspects of the Rapid Prototyping Center, an industry/academia consortium of more than 70 companies and individuals operating since 1993. Tim has been active in the rapid prototyping field since purchasing and installing an SLA-250 at GE Appliances in 1988. He is a board member for the Society of Manufacturing Engineers Rapid Technologies and Additive Manufacturing Group, founded the Selective Laser Sintering User’s Group and served as president four years and is a proud Dinosaur award recipient for the SLS User’s Group. His background and experiences are in plastic part design, rapid prototyping and computer-aided engineering. His current area of concentration is in direct digital manufacturing of end use parts via additive manufacturing. He received his Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Louisville in 1987.

Todd Grimm is president of T. A. Grimm & Associates (Edgewood, KY), which offers rapid prototyping consulting and marketing services. In the 17 years that he has been involved with rapid prototyping, he has established himself as one of the leading experts on the technology and the industry. Todd is an author, speaker and industry advisor. He is the author of User’s Guide to Rapid Prototyping, and is a frequent contributor to trade magazines. For the past eight years, he has served as an advisor for the Society of Manufacturing Engineer’s Rapid Prototyping & Manufacturing conference. He is also Vice Chairman for the society’s Rapid Technologies and Additive Manufacturing technical community and chairman of its reverse engineering technical group. Todd has a masters certificate in rapid prototyping, and is a graduate of Purdue University, where earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering.

Greg Morris is one of three Principals and COO of Morris Technologies, Inc., a Cincinnati, OH-based rapid prototyping, product development and engineering firm. Greg is also a Principal with Rapid Quality Manufacturing, an additive manufacturing-focused company, located in Cincinnati, OH. Greg has been involved in the RP&M industry since 1994 and has written numerous related articles, presented at various trade shows (including SME’s RAPID Show) and speaks frequently on the topic of rapid manufacturing using additive manufacturing methodologies.

Tom Mueller is partner and co-founder of Express Pattern (Vernon Hills, IL), a supplier of rapid prototyping services and a leading provider of rapid prototyping patterns for investment casting. Tom has published several articles on rapid prototyping applications and is a frequent speaker on the topic.

Tom’s involvement with rapid prototyping began in the late 1980s at Baxter Healthcare where he headed the first beta test for 3D Systems. After two years there, he and a partner formed Prototype Express, one of the earliest service bureaus, which eventually grew to be the largest in the industry.

Tom holds BSME and MSME degrees from the University of Illinois and an MBA from the Sloan School of Management at MIT.

Scott Schermer is one of the leading experts working with additive technologies, 3D printer technology and direct digital manufacturing. He is senior rapid prototyping specialist at SC Johnson where he is responsible for leading and executing rapid prototyping (RP) efforts. Scott has also helped develop a certification program for SME focused on the RP industry and is an advisor to SME’s annual Rapid Prototyping trade show. He is a past chair to SME’s (RTAM) Rapid Technology and Additive Manufacturing technical community and a past (GARPA) chair Global Alliance of Rapid Prototyping Associations. He has been quoted and featured in many publications and invited to give many talks on rapid tooling, rapid prototyping, 3D printing and direct digital manufacturing.

Michael Siemer is the founder of Mydea Technologies (Orlando, FL). His total rapid prototyping (RP) experience spans a period of almost 11 years and began at the University of Central Florida where he helped commission UCF’s rapid prototyping laboratory. He earned his BS in Aerospace Engineering and MS in Mechanical Engineering from UCF and is a registered professional engineer. Since 1995, Michael worked at the Walt Disney World Co. helping engineer new rides and shows. He is a member of SME’s RTAM Technical Community (formerly the rapid prototyping association) and has been a conference advisor for SME’s RP&M Conference for five years. Michael has also moderated and spoken at conferences worldwide and has contributed to numerous magazines. He serves on the SME RTAM Steering Committee and is a representative for the Tech Watch Committee of SME’s new Education Community. He is also one of approximately 20 Certified Master Level RP professionals and the 2006 Chair of the RTAM. Michael founded Mydea Technologies in 2003 as part of the UCF Technology Incubator. His company provides product development services with an emphasis on rapid prototyping, tooling and manufacturing technology. Michael’s vision is to compress the product development cycle to one step, where any individual consumer can design, customize and produce his/her own products.

Thomas A. Sorovetz has been with Chrysler (Detroit, MI) for more than 22 years, currently working as a supervisor for the Vehicle Engineering Development, Rapid Prototyping Development, Wood, Plastic, CNC and Carbon Fiber Shops. He has more than 20 years of experience in automotive design and engineering and more than 17 years of experience in rapid prototyping. Along with publishing numerous articles in the field of rapid prototyping, rapid tooling and photoelastic stress analysis using stereolithography, he has been a presenter/speaker at several technical conferences.

Thomas’s affiliation with the Society of Manufacturing Engineers includes Rapid Prototyping & Manufacturing Conference Advisory Committee for more than 15 years, Co-chair of the Bright Minds Mentor Program, Board of Advisors, Rapid Prototyping Association of SME and AUTOFACT Advisory Committee. He holds the Master Level certificate for rapid prototyping and currently serves as an Executive Board Member for the 3D SDSUG (3D Systems equipment Users Group).

Richard Tweddell is a senior engineer with Procter & Gamble’s Global Packaging & De-vice Development Divi-sion (GPDD) where he explores and evaluates new technologies related to rapid prototyping and packaging. His emphasis is to leverage the practical application of RP technologies to support product development in an increasingly aggressive commercial environment. Prior to his current assignment, Rick managed Procter & Gamble’s Concept Modeling Group for several years, where his mission was to rapidly develop consumer testable prototypes in the earliest “fuzzy front end” stages of new product development. To this end, Rick orchestrated the appropriate, cost ef-fective and timely use of P&G’s considerable RP tooling menu including: SLS, SLA, FDM, SRP, laser cutting/etching and purfactory. Additionally, Rick has acknowledged expertise in many conventional fabrications like casting, thermoforming, mold making and model build-ing. Before joining Procter & Gamble, Rick worked for more than a decade in the toy industry where he was an early adopter of many of the RP technologies so common today. As author or co-author of 26 U.S. Patents, Rick is highly re-garded for his creativity and non-conventional problem solving skills.