HUGH J ROPER
I Previously Worked for Wheelabrator Allevard Enterprises North American Operations
Employment Date
Started October 1989 to September 30 / 2005 and as a consultant to Wheelabrator Allevard and others.
Present Position
Consultant TECHNICAL ADVISOR since October 1 / 2006
Education and Experience
Graduated in 1954 as an Engineering Drafting Technician both Civil and Mechanical. and have completed extensive upgrades in Engineering Technology. I am a qualified NACE Level 3 Coating Inspector Technician. I am also qualified as an SSPC Coating Specialist.
I have worked for Wheelabrator Corp. Canada in both Accounting and Engineering capacities from 1972-1985.
I operated a Metal Laundry business from March 1985 to November 1989.
In 1989 I was made an offer I could not refuse and accepted a position with Wheelabrator Allevard Enterprises Canadian Operation as a Technical Sales Representative.
Territory Responsibilities
I am responsible for Technical Services for all of North America including USA, Canada, Mexico and special assignments in South and Central America.
Work Description
My mandate was to work with sales representatives to help them open new accounts, or resolve our customers’ technical application problems and suggest or develop new surface preparation controls, procedures and applications and better methods for the utilization of our Steel Abrasives in their processes. I net work with a number of technical people with broad Technical Experience. We network together to assemble and supply the latest technical innovation, knowledge, and assistance on how to utilize Cast Steel Abrasives in most applications for Steel abrasives, to enhance our customer’s process and reduce his operating costs. I constantly work on writing and upgrading our in-house Technical Manuals for numerous applications, operational procedures, Cost effective controls and New Technical applications for sales applications, along with answering questions from other technical people located around the world on how we setup and operate different Surface Preparation Applications with many different Abrasives..
I currently work as a consultant to several companies and maintain an active private membership in several Technical Societies and participate as a voting member on a number of specific Technical, and Standards Committees for
ASTM - American Society for Testing and Materials.
SSPC - The Society for Protective Coatings,
NACE - International, National Association of Corrosion Engineers,
NAPCA -The National Association of Pipe Coaters.
I am an active private voting member of several joint SSPC / NACE Technical Specification and Standards Committees that write the Standards and supply latest State of the Art Recommended Practices for using the materials or the processes. Some of the committees that I serve on are listed below
I am the Chairman of the NACE 259 Soluble Salt Committee defining Soluble salt contamination and guidance levels. And Co Chair of the 142 Chloride committee
Several other Surface Preparation Committees for specific applications e.g. Steel, Concrete, Aluminum. Pipe Coating, Ship Building, Off Shore Structures, etc..
The Committee for Blasting Abrasives.
The Committee for Air Blast Training.
The Committee for New Visual Standards for Abrasive Blasting.
The Committee for Metallizing.
There are several other committees that are not so active in setting Abrasive Blasting Standards that I also advise.
I am have recently completed a long term research project to establish the relationship of Peak Count and Profile on Coating Adhesion and Long Term Performance. The findings of the study were published in the JPCL Journal in June of.2005 and there is a follow up article on how to achieve the results of the June 2005 study to be published in the June 2006 JPCL journal.
