Who We Are

Who we are

Bob McDemus, The Thermal Spray Guy, is the Founder of Thermal Spray Depot. He is an advanced degree Materials Specialist with over 30 years of experience in material and coating engineering.  He has worked with aerospace, medical and industrial manufacturing applications. Bob’s experience ranges from being a senior manager in a fortune 500 companies to being a partner in a small job shop.

Bob McDemus Head Shot

– – – The Thermal Spray Guy – – – Bob McDemus

What we do

Thermal Spray Depot specializes in helping out start up and existing companies who are serious about being in the thermal spray business.  We can help companies have:

  • A goal to
    • add at least $50,000 to your profit line from thermal spray
    • show a return on investment
    • eliminate outsourcing of coating
    • establish a thermal spray cell
  • A requirement for
    • coating engineering assistance
    • metallurgical engineering assistance
    • creating a safe environment for their employees
    • establishing measurable coating property requirements

If you fall into one of the following categories, we are the wrong fit for you:

  • An individual looking at thermal spray as a hobby
  • A person trying to determine the price of equipment for eBay
  • ROI is not the reason you are looking at this technology

We are here to help companies make a profit with  thermal spray as part of their overall business

 

Bob’s Resume

Some people still like the resume format.  If that is you, read on.  IF not, its time to go to another page.

Areas of demonstrated expertise:

  • Coatings
  • Pack and Vapor Coatings
  • Thermal Spray Coatings
  • Vacuum coatings
  • Titanium & Superalloy Metallurgy
  • Titanium processing
  • Rolling, turning and grinding
  • Graphite/Moly Lubes
  • Quality Assurance
  • Laboratory testing, full metallurgical lab and fracture toughness testing
  • ISO 9002/AS9100
  • Heat Treat and Furnace Braze
  • Continuous Improvement
  • Kaizen
  • Lean manufacturing
  • Six Sigma projects

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE AND SELECTED ACCOMPLISHMENTS

THERMAL SPRAY DEPOT (2002 TO PRESENT)

Founder

Thermal Spray Depot has partnered with niche companies that excel in their specialty. That gives us the advantage to use companies who have specialized in their areas of expertise, while we can still offer the service of going to one resource to for all your needs. All of the big name suppliers use other sources to supply a portion of their equipment, powders, and wires; they just do not tell you that. We are affiliates of the various companies that have specialized in specific niches of the thermal spray industry, which include  combusiton wire, combustion powder, electric arc, HVOF, cold spray, or plasma.

DYNAMET, A CARPENTER COMPANY,  Washington, PA (2000 – 2002)

Technical Director – Executive level leadership to:

  • Direct all technical resposibilities including the mill metallugists, research metallurgists, and the labrotoies for research and production support.
  • Identify opportunities and initiate new applications of advanced aerospace materials to non traditional applications.  The results of this effort included successful applications in NASCAR, Formula 1, CART, and Snowmobile racing. Additionally advanced materials and processing used in medical applications. This represented 50% of the new growth initiatives for Dynamet.
  • Implement continuous improvement initiatives in a manufacturing environment. The results of this were implementing pull manufacturing techniques, six sigma black belt projects, and problem solving techniques aimed at manufacturing initiatives, and projects to improve yield by 2% for titanium billet, coil and bar processing.
  • Maintain an ISO 9002/AS9100 Quality System.  The results of this activity included reaccredidation of the ISO certification.

SULZER METCO (US) INC., Westbury, NY (1997-2000) 

Sales Engineer – Territory management for sales, service, and development of new opportunities for advanced thermal spray systems.  The results of this effort included:

  • Retaining 100% of customer base in unique, highly competitive environment
  • Selling a major thermal system for a medical application  valued in excess of 1 million dollars
  • Selling a major thermal system for a printing application valued in excess of 1 million dollars
  • Winning a $500,000/year powder contract through customer support efforts
  • Leading the installation and application of a carbide coating for a major water turbine in China with a value of  $1.5 million
  • Developing a repair process for Harley Davidson gas tanks with a projected savings of $250,000/yr.

CHROMALLOY AMERICAN TURBINE AIRFOILS DIVISION, Harrisburg, PA (1986-1997) 

Director, Coating Operations,(1994–1997)  Staff leadership role for manufacturing, sales and engineering.

Manager of Coatings Engineering (1987-1994), engineering responsibility for high value added special processes for gas turbine components including:

  • Super Alloy Brazing
  • Pack Aluminide Coatings
  • Vapor Deposition Coatings
  • Thermal Spray Coatings
  • Vacuum Heat Treatment
  • Nickel Plating
  • Above the pack vapor chrome process developed resulting in reducing costs be one-half
  • Above the pack vapor aluminum process developed resulting in reducing costs by one-half
  • Cell manufacturing concept implementing in the thermal spray area reducing labor costs by 25% and improving throughput by 100%
  • Nickel plate line designed and installed bringing nickel plate in house, reducing costs by 30%, and improving throughput

Manager of Materials Control Laboratory(1986-1987)

Responsible for the oversight of all laboratory functions as related to materials control and process control, including optical metallography, scanning electron microscope, wet chemistry lab, atomic absorption, non-destructive testing, failure analysis, and X-ray analysis.

CARPENTER TECHNOLOGY, Reading, PA (1979-1986) 

Supervisor, Production Testing Laboratory (1983-1986)

Research Metallurgist (1979-1983)

EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

  • Lehigh University – M.S., Metallurgy and Material Science
  • Pennsylvania State University – B.S. Metallurgy
  • Lehigh County Community College – Associate Degree in Electronics
  • TBM Kaizen training
  • Six Sigma sponsor training
  • Lean manufacturing techniques
  • Penn  State University, Finance for Strategic Management
  • Corning Institute – Continuous Improvement Instructor Training
  • Certified Quality Engineer, ASQC