Robert (Alex) Balli

Experience

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  The Shaw JCC of Akron

  May 2012 - Sept 2019

  Head Lifeguard and Swim Instructor

  Liable for safety of patrons at JCC pool and responsible for cleaning pool area; primary rescuer three times. One of a few leaders of the lifeguard team and responsible for making sure necessary procedures get done.

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  TLT-Turbo GmbH

  Jul 2016 - Aug 2016

  Manufacturing Intern

  Gained exposure to a manufacturing environment, assembled inventory racks, painted hydraulic test stand, troubleshooted problems with PTC Creo CAD software, organized vendor inspection reports, and cleaned parts

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  The Ohio State University

  Jan 2017 - Apr 2018

  Undergraduate Research Assistant

  - Wrote and defended an honors thesis regarding turbulent drag reduction- Set up lab equipment, designed a flow system, and calibrated temperature and pressure readings- Planned the purchase of a reverse osmosis system and a booster pump

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  OMNOVA Solutions

  Aug 2018 - Jan 2019

  Chemical Manufacturing Co-op

  - Effluent pH Project – Designed and carried out a project to reduce time spent on cleaning pH probes in the current system for measuring pH of effluent before it is released into the city water- Daily SAP use, inventory checks, equipment ordering, and quality lab experience- Made improvements to the Excel VBA code used for inventory checks

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  ContiTech

  Feb 2019 - Dec 2019

  Development Chemist, Intern

  - Worked in a team of 5 to consolidate rubber hose formulations in order to decrease costso Led regular meetings to discuss promising compound consolidation opportunities- Improved VBA code for lab test data cleaning so that essential calculations would be included- Used chemistry and statistical analysis in JMP & Python to analyze and improve rubber material propertieso Increased tensile strength in a compound used in Flexsteel® hoseo Improved a compound recipe used in VintnerTM food hose to prevent tube bulging Show less

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  Frontier Oil Tools

  Jan 2020 - Jan 2020

  Development Chemist

  - Designed and performed experiments to improve and test rubber swellable packers for upstream oil and gas- Mixed and then molded rubber onto stainless steel mandrels- Helped explore the feasibility of manufacturing rotary control devices (RCDs)

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  Berry Global, Inc.

  Mar 2021 - now

  Product Development Engineer

  - Research, pilot testing, and process development for tapes, on-site at a 500+ person manufacturing site- Quickly learned nearly 100 adhesive formulations and process conditions for various solvent, hotmelt, and rubber (Banbury/mill) mixers, 1 hotmelt coating line, 1 solvent coating line, 5 calenders including both adhesive extruders and film extruders, a flexo printing line, and 17 tape converters- Primary R&D contact for pipeline, automotive, and aerospace tapes; projects also in HVAC and flooring markets- Developed and launched 6 new tapes & 3 line extensions, including prototyping and process development- Analyzed process capability to set product specifications and analyze performance to existing specifications- Used root cause analysis to determine the cause of quality problems and develop solutions for them- Sourced, led trials, and completed qualification for 12 new raw materials to reduce cost and avoid shortages, including a Six Sigma Green Belt project to evaluate new rubber sources for ~$2 million annual savings- Adjusted tape constructions and processes so they can be moved to faster, more cost-efficient production lines- Pilot plant manager – coordinated pilot trial scheduling and pilot equipment maintenance with 2 direct reports- Calculator and document development – owned responsibility for developing standardized mixing calculators in Excel to decrease time spent planning trials and performing cost estimates for new products Show less