CF900: Finished Product 
Fatigue testing of the pinch valve sleeve 
An example of a failed Sleeve: I iterated through different durometers until the right wear resistance characteristics were balanced with closing flexibility 
Vessel design: I proved out the best sensor placement in order to ensure reliable operation. 
I pioneered methods to understand the conveying system and was able to incorporate changes that significantly decreased field issues and increased the range of abrasive sizes that could be reliably run.
The CF900 product is part of a family of products that convey abrasive media from an easily accessible location on the side of a Flow machine up to the cutting tool via hoses and metering devices. The CF900 is unique in that a top silo can be refilled by the user at any time and PLC logic controls the depressurization/refilling and repressurization of a lower chamber that does the conveying.
I performed extensive testing to take the CF900 to production. It required getting into the fundamentals of how abrasive is conveyed, questioning the incumbent dogma, developing sensors and tools to understand the process, and iterating through hardware, software and electrical changes in order to release a quality product.
After product release, I continued development to increase the capabilities of the product and to reflect new demands of marketing. I also worked closely with quality and supply chain to provide data, design recommendations and solutions to correct arguably catastrophic quality issues with Chinese vendors. I also provided guidance and penned training material for the field technicians and installers.
The fundamental knowledge gained from this project informed sweeping changes I made later to the entire abrasive conveying system. I was regarded as the expert in abrasive conveying and the sum of the changes I put in place reduced field issues by over 80% with standard systems, opened up new applications in feeding smaller sized particles reliably, and enabled new technology.
