Joe Fallows is a Forensic Expert for plastic product failure cases and skilled at plastic product design and commercialization.
Trained as a degreed Mechanical Engineer from Michigan State University, he focused graduate work on process control theory. Mr. Fallows has been involved with product design and manufacturing since 1976. His expertise includes concept development, material selection, property interpretation, part design, process selection, product commercialization and product failure analysis. All of Mr. Fallows patents involve plastic product design. Joe ran the application development group for GE Plastics which was the world’s largest supplier of engineering thermoplastics. Joe has traveled internationally to support subrogation, and product commercialization. He started his own consulting company in 1989.
Today Fallows Associates Plastics Consultants works with manufacturers to design and commercialize products using engineering plastics. This usually involves working with the manufacturer’s design and marketing teams, as well as molder and mold maker.
They are most often asked to provide forensic expert services to find the root cause of plastic part failure either through subrogation or directly by the Original Equipment Manufacturer. After identification of the failure mechanism has been made, corrective steps are recommended. This may involve design improvements, process modification, material change or alternate assembly techniques.
Dr. Sam Miller is a Forensic Expert for plastic product failure cases with expertise in material characterization techniques and fracture topography analysis.
Having received a BS and MS in Chemical Engineering at Ohio University, he received a PhD in Polymer Science and Engineering from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA. Dr. Miller has been involved with polymer development and analysis since 1973. His expertise includes mechanical and chemical analysis of polymers, as well as rheological, thermal, and PVT. This expertise has led to success in new polymer formulation developments, analysis of processing and design issues, and extensive work in fracture analysis.
Prior to joining Fallows Associates, Sam spent 32 years in the General Electric Co. During his career, he focused on basic polymer research at the Corporate R&D Center, applying product improvement and root cause failure analysis with GE’s Appliance Group, and managing technical people and laboratories for GE Plastics Global Headquarters. His career encompasses a wide range of responsibilities involving polymer performance, application failure analysis and working as a UL liaison.
As a consultant with Fallows Associates, Sam works with engineers and uses basic polymer science to demonstrate root cause of failure in broken plastic parts. Leveraging his extensive academic and research experience, Sam is able to bring to bear the full range of polymer science knowledge in order to resolve plastics problems.
