Development of Elastomer Compounds and Seals: A Case Study in Upstream Oil & Gas

Seema Gangatirkar has nearly 20 years of experience in a variety of strategic marketing roles including market research. She is currently a product manager at Greene Tweed where she is responsible for the for the industrial Chemraz® FFKM portfolio which includes solutions across the entire Oil & Gas value chain. She has worked with the Advanced Technology, Engineering, and Commercial groups to align market and product requirements that resulted in successfully developing and launching new materials including Chemraz® 678 and Chemraz® 694. She holds a BBA and BA from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and an MBA from Texas A&M University

Bret is currently Technology Manager of Chemraz® FFKM at Greene Tweed in Kulpsville, PA where he leads the development of next generation compounds and seals for applications in harsh environments.  He partners with product managers and application engineers aligned with a variety of industries such as Semiconductor, Oil & Gas, and Aerospace to match market needs with innovative materials science.  While at Greene Tweed, he has worked to refresh the foundational research portfolio to enable continued differentiated innovation of the Chemraz product line.  Prior to joining Greene Tweed in 2020, Bret spent over 11 years at Dow in various research and development roles in the Wire & Cable, Packaging & Specialty Plastics, and Performance Silicones businesses.  Most recently at Dow, he led the product development group for developing thermally and electrically conductive silicone composites for thermal management and EMI shielding of electronics.  Over his academic and professional career, he has worked on development of materials including fluoropolymers, polyolefins, flexible PVC, engineering thermoplastics, and silicone composites. He has been awarded 6 granted patents across a variety of these material families.  Bret received a BS degree in Plastics Engineering Technology in 2004 and a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering in 2009 from the Pennsylvania State University.