Neel Nadpara

Major: Materials Science and Engineering

Double Major: Mechanical Engineering; Materials Science and Engineering

Conduct and assist less senior team members in performing high-quality metallurgical testing for customers in a vast number of industries from aerospace to medical. Metallurgical testing performed includes evaluation of microhardness, microstructure, grain size, phase volume fraction determination, surface contamination/integrity, evaluation of conventional and non-conventional machining operations, coating analysis, heat treatment and transformation analysis, SEM analysis, and at times product comparison analysis, reverse engineering projects, or failure analysis. Often develop novel metallography techniques to evaluate customer propriety alloys and assist in developing unique testing capabilities such as stress corrosion step loading testing.

Provided Quality Engineering support for commercial and military engine parts repair at East Hartford Repair Operations which is one of Pratt and Whitney’s largest engine part repair operations. Reviewed complex repair process plans, first articles, and first pieces for compliance to commercial and military technical data for static and major rotating parts. Led internal investigations with cross-functional teams to determine root cause and preventive actions for non-conformances. Provided support to shop for quality issues and answer inspector and operator questions. Repair processes reviewed include chemical cleaning/surface preparation, inspection, machining (turning, milling, and grinding), blending, coating (thermal spray, plating, and paint), welding, brazing, and heat treatment. Familiar with different engine part families including stators, combustors, inlet cases, diffuser cases, HPC hubs, HPC drum rotors, air seals, turbine disks, and shafts.

Acted as subject matter expert for welding processes and relevant metallurgical principles for various alloy systems used in submarine structure and machinery components. Reviewed and aided in the development of supplier welding procedures, engineering drawings, and Electric Boat specifications. Conducted welding audits of internal welding as well as suppliers. Worked with internal and external stakeholders to solve welding-related problems on critical submarine structural and machinery components. Knowledgeable in numerous welding processes including SMAW, GMAW, GTAW, SAW, and EBW and have worked with various alloy systems used in submarine structure and machinery components (steel alloys including HY-80/100, austenitic stainless steels, martensitic stainless steels, and duplex stainless steel; nickel alloys including Inconel 600 and Inconel 625; copper alloys including cupronickel and Monel 400; and other specialty alloys such as commercially pure titanium, Hastelloy C276, Monel K-500, 17-4 PH stainless steel, and Inconel 718).

Provided process engineering support for milling and turning of exotic alloys including titanium and nickel-based superalloys. Developed models, operation sheets, setup sheets, and standard work instructions to support manufacturing engineers. Designed fixtures for machining, inspection, and guards to protect parts from significant rework costs. Conducted time studies to optimize cell throughput and determined process capability for continuous improvement.

Worked alongside production employees to manufacture PCBs within the plating and drilling departments. Operated the automated plating line, solder strippers, photo-resist strippers, abrasive scrubbers, CNC drill machines, deburring, plasma etching, and other PCB manufacturing equipment. Performed quality inspection within the dry lab using light microscopes and on the shop floor using X-Ray equipment.

Designed and manufactured custom bowl feeder components such as linear rails and baffle designs to orient parts. Determined failures in our feeders via real-world testing and validation and subsequently carried out corrective actions based on testing to improve feeder functionality. Verified completed feeders via final testing to ensure customer specified requirements were met or exceeded. Created a video library of completed bowl feeders to use as a reference for designing future feeders for similar parts.