About Gray Beards Engineering
GBE Team
Mike and Bruce each bring over 35 years of experience and knowledge from the welding industry and academia to better serve GBE clients. Together they hold 17 patents, have written numerous professional publications and given multiple technical presentations. They are recognized experts in the welding engineering field and have executed projects domestically and internationally.
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37+ years’ experience in solutions –based research and development applications for the BWX Technologies, Babcock and Wilcox, and McDermott International companies.
BWXT Technical Fellow - corporate welding engineering resource.
Have conducted more than 100 R&D projects with budgets from $10K to $6M
Subject matter expert (SME) for EBW, GTAW, and GMAW
Industries include commercial power generation (fossil, nuclear), naval nuclear power, offshore pipeline and jacket construction, large-scale super-conducting magnets, linear accelerators, aerospace, and high-level nuclear was encapsulation/storage
8 patents
BS/MS Welding Engineering, certified welding inspector, six-sigma yellow belt
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Bruce Madigan has been involved in welding industry for over 4 decades. His interests lie primarily in welding processes, sensors, monitoring and controls. He also likes numerical modeling, nondestructive evaluation and metallurgy. In his spare time Bruce’s hobbies include playing with computers and 3D printing as well as tinkering with cars.
GBE Timeline
“Bruce discovered welding in junior high school shop class”
“Bruce graduated high school and started college at Ohio State”
“Mike attends welding school and Bruce left college to attend Hobart School of Welding Technology practicing OFW, GMAW, FCAW, SMAW and GTAW”
“Bruce worked as welder in a Cleveland Ohio steel mill shop doing SMAW, GTAW, GMAW, FCAW”
“Mike attended Ohio State BSWE, while Bruce received a BS & MS in Welding Engineering - Sensing and Control of GTAW, Bruce also worked at Sensotec, Inc. on pressure and force transducer welding with GTAW and RSW. In 1984, Bruce interned during the summer at Sandia National Lab, Livermore, CA - Sensing and Control of GTAW”
“Mike replaces Bruce at Sensotec, Inc.”
“Mike worked at Babcock & Wilcox Research Center. In this time he worked on Electron Beam Welding of Aluminum Nickel Bronze Naval propulsion components, developed GMAW-AM for large scale Inconel components, and developed base and weld filler materials for Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Motor Case.”
“Bruce started work at Edison Welding Institute as a Research Engineer - Fusion Welding and Automation Group”
“Mike attended Ohio State for his MSWE”
“Bruce attended Colorado School of Mines and earned a PhD in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering”
“Bruce was employed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology working on Sensing and Control of GMAW”
“While working at Babcock & Wilcox Research Center, Mike developed low-cost Space Shuttle main engine rocket motor for the Space Station. He also developed closure methods for Yucca Mountain high-level waste repository containers. Mike then did work for McDermott International Offshore Construction and fabricated 1st deep water tension leg platform (TLP). Mike develops and deploys the 1st use of pulse GMAW for pipeline S-Lay while in southeast Asia”
“Mike transfers to the Babcock & Wilcox Business Development Group in Lynchburg, VA. Fabricated Niobium Linear Accelerator Cavity fabrication and large-scale super conducting magnet.”
“Bruce jointly founded WeldWare, Inc. Company focus was the development of sensors and new products”
“Bruce started as a Professor of Welding Engineering at Montana Technological University. He also started WeldWorks working on EB AM, laser powder bead fusion AM, PAW AM, GMAW AM, weld penetration sensing, and expert witness services”
“Mike: Babcock & Wilcox/BWXT Naval Nuclear Development Group - Gas Tungsten Arc and Electron Beam Process Development, Development of spectral filtering weld camera system, Electron Bean energy profiling sensor development”
“Mike: Montana Tech Adjunct Professor - Welding Engineering, Development of large-scale electron beam heat treating, development of nitrogen in helium monitoring system”
“Mike: BWXT lead Corporate Welding Engineer and Technical Fellow”
“Bruce retires from Montana Tech and becomes an Emeritus Professor”
“Bruce and Mike are presently at Gray Beards Engineering -specialty GMAW filler, data acquisition hardware and analysis software”