William Fruscella

Background

About William Fruscella

Completing a Ph.D. in Chemistry is a long and rigorous process. One never really knows what can be accomplished in a career with that unique training. The story started with a young boy contentedly experimenting with his prized chemistry sets. From there, the interest in chemistry flourished and B.S. and Ph. D. degrees in Chemistry from the University of California were earned. Ever since the early experiences, the product-customer-marketplace aspects of chemical science were most appealing, as opposed to the academic or theoretical realms. There was always an inner drive to someday bring a new idea or technology to the marketplace. The years passed, along with a number of positions and responsibilities. Finally, after much consideration, the decision was made to resign from a stable, high-level position to pursue an idea proposed by a collaborator which was felt to hold considerable marketplace potential. The idea was to develop a method to remove tenacious inorganic lubricants, such as molybdenum disulfide, from Ti alloys with the performance and reliability of molten salts. After considerable market, patent and literature research, focus was placed on ultrasonics and aqueous based chemistries. Notebooks and bench scale experiments commenced. Following many months of testing and metallurgical evaluations a large scale plant test of the idea was sought. Following emails and calls to prospects, an interested customer was identified. The method was tested successfully on repeated production size cleaning batches and a contract was signed to provide the chemicals and commercial operating system. Chem Clean Technologies, Inc, was formed. We have funded our own R&D and product development in order to understand the "big picture" and also to advance discoveries that would lead to patent positions. This work includes modifications to the systems and hardware, evaluating solution by-products, lifetime, stability, as well as solution reaction kinetics. The journey from idea to marketplace was long and filled with many obstacles, objections and perceptions that needed to be overcome. The project has fulfilled that long-standing inner drive. Finally, observing the genesis of an idea into an actual functioning product is more satisfying than any accolade or amount of money.