Experience

Texas Hydraulics, Inc.

• United States
• Machinery Manufacturing
• 100 - 200 Employee

• Senior Engineer

  • Oct 2020 - Present



SLB

• United States
• Technology, Information and Internet
• 700 & Above Employee

• Technology Project Manager

  • Feb 2017 - May 2020

  Project Manger responsible for sustain projects for Smith Bits. Executed projects from development of the business case through business commercialization. Responsible for the development of product requirements, product testing, and product verification and validation.• Responsible for the planning and implementation of technology projects for the drill bits sustaining team. Responsibilities included leading technical review meetings and presenting critical decision points to the Stakeholders.• Managed projects from development of the business case through business commercialization. Responsible for defining the product requirements, concepts evaluation, verification and validation planning, development of the field test plans and product commercialization. • Initiated and executed a project to mitigate stress corrosion cracking on steel body PDC drill bits. The project resulted in a significant reduction in bit body cracking, increasing the average number of runs on a drill by 30%.• Led project to improve retention of field replaceable thread parts in downhole environment. Developed new retention methods and Standard Work Instructions (SWI) which showed significant improvement. • Developed new Engineering Specifications for manufacturing to allow the quality group to disposition non-conforming products during the manufacturing process.• Performed audits of manufacturing Standard Work Procedures and made recommendations on new methods to improve product reliability or reduce setup time.• Led efforts to evaluated new processes for welding on steel body bits to help mitigate weld cracking. • Initiated project to better understand corrosion/erosion of carbide substrates when embedded in matrix body drill bits in downhole applications. Collaborated with material subject matter experts to determine potential root causes. Recommended testing methods to verify the current state of the problem and to verify potential improvements based on design changes. Show less

• Verification and Validation Lab Manager

  • Nov 2016 - Feb 2017

  Manager of the verification and validation lab. Led a group of 20+ engineers and technologists. The lab was responsible for providing testing services to the engineering and reliability groups for both new product development and failure analysis.• Managed 20+ engineers and technologists responsible for providing testing services for the Engineering and Reliability groups. • Managed the website for planning and scheduling of projects through the V&V lab.

• Engineering Manager - Hydraulic Systems.

  • Sep 2010 - Oct 2016

  Hydraulics Development Manager. Managed a group of 6 mechanical engineers which supported various product development projects. Responsibilities included the development of innovative products for B&AT and DT&R segments. Projects included developing automated processes for meshing, solving, post processing and report generation for PDC drill bits. CFD simulation times were reduced from a few days to accomplish to a few hours. Skills include Engineering Management, computational fluid dynamics of complex structures, CAD modeling using Creo, forging and casting design and failure analysis and product remediation.• Managed team of 6 Mechanical Engineers.• Responsible for all hydraulic related design and failure analysis for both DT&R and B&AT product lines. This included the product lines Neyrfor turbines, borehole enlargement tools such as the Rhino XS2 and the Rhino XC systems, PDC and roller cone drill bit systems.• Developed and implemented worldwide carbide nozzle reclaim process. Projected savings for the reclaim program was $750,000/yr.• Led continuous improvements for the automated PDC drill bit CFD simulation process. Improvements included automation of the meshing, XY and histogram plotting, and report generation. This allowed the CFD simulation processes to be moved from simulation and modeling engineers to bit designers with no CFD simulation experience. • Led hydraulic development team for the Spear Product Line. This product line was recognized by World Oil Magazine as the Best New Drilling Technology for 2011.• Developed new post processing methods using Fluent’s UDFs to evaluate erosion prone areas on PDC drill bit. With new processes, comparative analysis is used to mitigate bit body and cutter substrate erosion which improved profit margins from 30% - 50% by increasing the numbers of runs on the bit body and the cutters. Show less



Smith International, Inc.

• Houston, Texas, United States

• Engineering Manager, B&AT and DT&R Hydraulic Systems

  • Oct 2008 - Aug 2010

  Managed team of 6 Mechanical Engineers who provided system design and modeling and simulation support for projects for PDC and roller cone drill bits, borehole enlargement tools and turbine drilling systems. Team also performed sustaining support by performing root cause analysis for product failures and system redesigns to mitigate failure issues. • Managed team of 6 Mechanical Engineers. Team was responsible for all hydraulic designs that required CFD simulation. It was also responsible for all failure analysis the required CFD simulation for the Smith Bits and DT&R drilling systems. • Major contributor to the Shamal-Typhoon product line and launch for a $5,000,000+/yr market. Responsibilities included the design of new roller cone bit leg forgings for bit sizes 17-1/2” and larger and the development of a new hydraulic system (J3) for large bits which improved drilling rates in soft formation drilling. • Led team in establishing new processes for evaluating component erosion in downhole tools using CFD simulation. • Led team in the development of general guidelines for the design PDC bit hydraulics to improve product performance consistency and to reduce bit design time. The design guidelines enables bit designers to layout the bit hydraulics in less than 1 hr. Show less



Smith International, Inc

• Engineering Supervisor - Smith Bits Hydraulics

  • May 2006 - Sep 2008

  Supervisor over the Hydraulic Systems team. Team was responsible for sustaining the PDC and roller cone product lines. This included performing failure analysis and implementing new designs to improve product reliability. • Led group of up to six Mechanical Engineers specializing in hydraulic systems design. I was responsible to support the hydraulic development of PDC and roller cone bit hydraulics development. This included the design and simulation of up to 600+ bit designs a year. It also included multiple projects developing new systems and standards for the PDC and roller cone product lines. • Designed new hydraulic system (VE/J3) for large bits designed to improve penetration rates in soft formation drilling by increasing energy on the hole bottom and improving cutting structure cleaning. System was implemented on bit sizes 12-1/4 - 28” and was part of the premium product line offering. Hydraulic system still used on large formation bits. Show less



Smith International, Inc.

• Houston, Texas, United States

• Senior Mechanical Engineer

  • Jan 2000 - Apr 2006

  Design Engineer responsible for the sustaining of hydraulic systems for the roller cone product line. This included modeling and simulation of hydraulics systems and the development of new components to improve the various product lines. • Developed Flex-Flo, Adaptive Hydraulics System for 7-7/8” - 12-1/4” roller cone bit hydraulics. The new leg forgings allowed the nozzle orientations to be optimized to the formation types being drilled. The hydraulic design strategy was later carried into the larger bits sizes. The design work included new forging designs and experimental testing of the bits in the bit hydraulics test stand. New guidelines were also developed to educated sales personnel and customers. The new hydraulic system, when combine with new IDEAS cutting structures, created one of Smith Bits most successful product launches of all time. • Developed the first automated system for CFD simulation of roller cone rock bits. The new system automated solving the model and the post processing process. The automation significantly reduced the time to solve and post process the models and improved output consistency. • Worked on design team that developed the TCT (Two Cone Technology) product line. I was responsible for developing the bit hydraulics, including creating multiple new forgings. • Inventor of the of the patented Multi-Stage diffuser nozzle system. This nozzle system provides inner row cleaning of the cones using the center jet. • Helped develop training program on Bit Hydraulics and taught multiple classes to new engineers. Show less



Smith International, Inc

• Houston, TX

• Mechanical Design Engineer

  • Jan 1993 - Dec 1999

  Responsible for the sustaining and development of roller cone bit hydraulics. Responsibilities included failure analysis, design improvements to improve reliability and CFD modeling and simulation. I used PTCs wildfire CAD software for model creation and drafting. I used Fluent for CFD simulations. Key projects are given below. • Responsible for roller cone bit hydraulic development. • Designed new $100,000 bit hydraulic test stand. Work included designing the test stand including all piping and selection of pumps, motors and flow control valves. I also developed the system software using Labview. The test stand was instrumental in developing fundamental understand of the flow characteristics for drill bit sizes 7-7/8” through 12-1/4”. • Key contributor in developing the use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) as a design tool for the roller cone product line. I have been involved from the companies journey in the use of computational fluid dynamics from first selecting Fluent as its first hydraulic design tool til present where much of the use is automated. Show less



Daedalus Research, Inc

• Logan, UT

• Engineer

  • Jun 1991 - Dec 1992

  Hired as first Mechanical Engineer in small business focused on SBIR and DOD contracts for developing new and innovative technologies primarily focused on unmanned air vehicles (UAVs). My projects included the following: • Provided engineering support in the development of the Slave Tandem Freewing (STF) Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) for a DOD Short Take-off and Landing UAV technology demonstration. • Worked on a contract for Northrup Grumman to build a UAV glider. I worked on the integration of control modules and other sub components into UAV Glider. • Provide FEA analysis of UAV substructures • Made Center of Gravity calculations for proper placement of system sub-components. • Supported lift and drag testing of UAV airframe. Show less



US Army

• United States
• Armed Forces
• 700 & Above Employee

• United States Army Reserve

  • Jun 1985 - Jun 1991

  Worked in a telecommunications unit. Performed repairs on electro-mechanical systems. • Occupation: Teletype Repair (31J) • Rank at separation: Sargent • Security clearance while in reserves: Secret • Worked in communications unit, responsible for repair of telecommunications equipment. • Graduated top of my class from the Army teletype repair school. Worked in a telecommunications unit. Performed repairs on electro-mechanical systems. • Occupation: Teletype Repair (31J) • Rank at separation: Sargent • Security clearance while in reserves: Secret • Worked in communications unit, responsible for repair of telecommunications equipment. • Graduated top of my class from the Army teletype repair school.