Job Description
Job DescriptionQualifications:
- BS in Chemical, Materials, Metallurgical or Mechanical Engineering
- 5 years of process/manufacturing engineering experience in aerospace metal finishing, electroplating, or chemical processing environment
- Must have hands-on knowledge of hard chrome & cadmium plating
- Knowledge of AMS, MIL, ASTM, customer/OEM special-process specs
- Implementation and maintenance of AS9100 and NADCAP requirements
- Lean Six Sigma, DOE/SPC experience or similar process-improvement training.
- Knowledge of ERP systems, Power BI, Minitab etc
- Demonstrated ability to interpret aerospace drawings, specifications, process standards and customer requirements and convert them into controlled manufacturing instructions.
- Knowledge of plating chemistry, electrochemistry, current density, rectification, anode/cathode relationships, solution control, agitation, filtration and process troubleshooting.
- Experience developing technique sheets, work instructions, routings, process plans or equivalent controlled manufacturing documentation.
- Comfortable working directly on the production floor with technicians and supervisors.
Responsibilities:
- Provide technical ownership and continuous improvement for hard chrome plating, cadmium plating, electroless nickel, masking, Chemfilm/chemical conversion coating, passivation, Nital Etch and associated cleaning, activation, stripping, baking and surface-preparation operations.
- Develop, validate and maintain detailed process/technique sheets and master routings for existing and new aerospace products, including operation sequence, specification, revision, critical parameters, masking boundaries, tooling, inspection points and required records.
- Translate customer drawings, purchase orders and aerospace specifications into clear, executable shop-floor instructions in partnership with Planning and Quality.
- Engineer plating methods for precision machined parts with attention to dimensional build-up, plating allowance, ID/OD requirements, runout, edge effects, current density, anode design, racking/fixturing and post-plate machining/grinding considerations.
- Develop and optimize masking methods, plugs, fixtures, racks, auxiliary anodes, thieves/shields and other tooling needed for repeatable plating results.
- Establish and control critical process parameters including bath chemistry, temperature, current density, amperage, voltage, plating time, agitation, filtration, solution movement and rectifier capability.
- Perform process capability and root-cause analysis for adhesion failures, thickness variation, burning, pitting, nodules, roughness, porosity, corrosion/salt-spray failures, hydrogen-embrittlement risk and other special-process defects.
- Partner with laboratory/chemical-control personnel on bath analysis, additions, contamination control, tank maintenance and corrective actions.
- Support Nadcap Chemical Processing readiness, audits, corrective actions, objective evidence and compliance to approved procedures and customer requirements.
- Support AS9100 implementation through process risk analysis, configuration/document control, change management, verification/validation, control of nonconforming output and objective evidence.
- Support NDT interfaces where process sequences require Magnetic Particle or Liquid Penetrant inspection before/after processing.
- Lead new-product introduction and first-article/process-readiness reviews; identify technical risk before releasing production.
- Establish standard times and process assumptions with Operations/Estimating using actual shop data to improve quoting, capacity planning and job costing.
- Design or specify process equipment improvements including rectifiers, filtration, agitation, pumps, heating/cooling, tanks, tooling and instrumentation.
- Train and mentor plating technicians, maskers, supervisors, planners and inspectors on process requirements and technical fundamentals.
- Lead structured corrective action using 5-Why, fishbone, DOE/SPC or other appropriate analytical methods and verify effectiveness.
- Drive first-pass yield, process capability, cycle-time reduction, reduced rework/scrap and improved repeatability.
- Support customer/OEM technical reviews, frozen planning, specification interpretation and process approval activities.
- Maintain technical discipline around current specification revisions and ensure engineering changes are reviewed before implementation.