Daniel Henkel

Background

About Daniel Henkel

Dr. Henkel was formerly a NASA scientist, materials research director, innovation leader, and corporate executive with over 35 years in material forensics, materials engineering and manufacturing processes. He has performed over 800 failure analyses for industry, attorneys, insurance, and governmental agencies, including police. His expertise spans metals, polymers, ceramics, and composites. He has numerous publications, obtained four patents, authored a textbook entitled Structure and Properties of Engineering Materials, taught graduate school in applied science, won the prestigious Engineering Materials Achievement Award, and is an elected Fellow of ASM International (FASM). ​ He completed his MS and Ph.D. at Lehigh University, where his research areas were physical metallurgy, forensics, and non-destructive evaluation. He is also a graduate of Pennsylvania State University in electrical engineering and is a registered professional engineer (PE) in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. ​ Dr. Henkel’s materials processing expertise includes: welding, casting, injection molding, forming, sintering, heat treatment, additive manufacturing (3D printing)and microstructural optimization. He developed commercial products using thin film membranes, catalytic nanoparticles, sol-gel coatings, ductile cast iron, and porous ceramics. His product experience spans diverse industries such as industrial filtration and separation, chemical processing, high/low voltage electrical switches, high vacuum equipment, fuel cells, medical devices, space flight, petrochemical, industrial piping, microelectronics, bridges and highway structures, municipal water systems, and aerospace. ​ Dr. Henkel’s materials expertise includes carbon and stainless steels, aluminum alloys, copper/brass, nickel base superalloys, titanium, intermetallics, carbon-reinforced composites; CPVC, PVC, acrylic, polycarbonate, nylon, acetal, and asphaltic polymers; paints, concrete, wood, glass, and engineering ceramics. He also has experience with material characterization of unknown substances performed with FTIR, TGA, GC-MS, and SEM/EDS. His corrosion experience includes microbially-induced corrosion (MIC), sulfidation, selective leaching, cavitation, sensitization, oxidation, carburization, erosion, chloride stress corrosion cracking, and crevice corrosion.