Robert C. Peckham, P.E.
                   
 
 
FABRICATION METHODS AND EQUIPMENT

            I have design and personal experience with the forming and fabrication of many carbon steels, alloy steels (4130, 4340, 6150, etc.), and stainless steels (303, 304, 316, 321, 347, 17-4PH, etc.), copper (OFHC, tellurium, beryllium), nickel (Inconel 600), and many aluminum alloys (1100, 2024, 5052, 6061, 6063, 7075, etc.). I have experience with joining techniques such as coated electrode arc welding, tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding, spot welding, brazing, soldering, bucked and mandrel type rivets, and adhesive bonding (anaerobic, hot melt, epoxy, polyester, polyurethane, and RTV(both alkoxy and acetoxy)). I have experience with various elastomers and plastics, both thermoplastic and thermoset (unfilled, filled, and reinforced "fiberglas").

            I have experience with a variety of "paints" (epoxy, catalyzed enamyl, wash primer, lacquer, powder coat epoxy and polyurethane).

            Half of my graduate units were in metallurgy. Race car parts I designed and used tended to be just strong enough. Designing parts with almost no safety factor that may kill you if they fail tends to make you a very careful engineer.

            I have owned and/or used standard machine tools such as a lathe, mill, drills, surface grinder, disk grinder, die grinder, band saw, punch, brake (hand, box and power), acetylene torch, electric welding, various soldering irons (solder pot and electric (down to 15w)) etc..

            I have experience with plating including copper, nickel, cadmium, chrome, zinc, electroless nickel, sulphuric anodize (water and acrylic seal), and stainless passivation. I have had parts plated with decorative chrome.
 
ELECTRICAL/ELECTRONIC

            I have designed various electrical equipment (amplifiers, switching circuits, logic) with voltages ranging from 10's of micro volts to 120 ac volt line. I have designed equipment with TTL, LSTTL, ALS and CMOS logic. I have designed various low noise and/or high-speed analog circuitry using op-amps (both bipolar and FET) and comparators, as well as individual transistors (bipolar and FET), resistors, capacitors, etc..

            I have used high power electrical equipment to generate high temperature plasmas (argon at about 6,000 degrees F).

            I have worked on a variety of cases involving damage to commercial computers, boards, cages, memory and power supplies as well as cases involving embedded computer systems (analyzers, IV pumps, ultrasound, telephone switching, vehicular control, etc.).

            This experience has proven very useful as industrial machine control systems have changed from banks of relays to computers (PLC's or single board). Most consumer products now contain microprocessors with ROM, RAM and/or FLASH memory containing software that may have bugs, or the computers may not be adequately protected from the consumer, commercial or industrial environments.

            One modern "field service" technique is simply downloading new firmware.


 
GAS SYSTEMS AND LIQUID FUEL EXPERIENCE

            I have personal use, research, and/or case, experience with gasses including hydrogen, helium, methane, propane, butane, acetylene, argon, nitrogen, air, nitrous oxide, methyl bromide, carbon monoxide, chlorine, ammonia and various Freons, as well as various liquid fuels such as methyl, ethyl, and isopropyl alcohol, isooctane, hexane, nitromethane, toluene, gasoline, diesel fuels and kerosene, and miscellaneous other hydrocarbons such as oils (petroleum based, castor, whale, and synthetic), acetone, MEK, etc..

            I have experience with several chlorinated solvents.
 
MEDICAL

            Based of my experience with gas dynamics, electronics, materials, and mechanisms in general, I have been fortunate to work on a number of interesting cases involving heart pumps, perfusion disposables, large automatic blood analyzers, respirators, transportable respirators, anesthesia machines, infant incubators, IV pumps and certain prosthetic devices, as well as various hospital general patient and physical plant equipment.
 
OVERSEEING EXPERT

            I have worked as a "consulting/overseeing expert" on complex cases with several engineering/scientific experts.

            I have helped attorneys coordinate the activities of mechanical engineers, civil engineers, chemists, chemical engineers, electrical engineers, metallurgists, and vehicular accident reconstructionists.


 
SOFTWARE

            We have two computer software experts available who have each spent over 30 years writing realtime and commercial code in various languages using several operating systems on a variety of hardware platforms.

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