Heather Allain, Executive Director, Materials Technology Institute (MTI), tells us about her passion for materials and the importance of MTI’s work to provide awareness of safe, reliable and sustainable materials use.
Heather Allain has been with MTI since 2008. Prior to becoming Executive Director, she worked for 14 years as an Associate Director to support projects and the MTI European region.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in Materials Science from Rice University. She started her career at DuPont where she was employed for 14 years before transitioning to MTI.
Heather Allain: I loved chemistry in high school, which started my journey at Rice University as a Chemical Engineering major. In my first materials science course, I loved how the fundamentals of the sizes of atoms and their charges determine the crystalline structures of metals, and thus the resulting properties of materials. Materials science plugged into my love of chemistry much more than chemical engineering did for me, so I changed majors right away, and every further course, especially those on corrosion, deepened my love of the field.
A materials engineering senior design project led me to work with DuPont, which in turn led to me accepting an internship, and then a full time job with the company after graduation, where I supported plants throughout the gulf coast, and later at Chambers Works in NJ. After approximately 14 years at DuPont, and a move to New England for family reasons away from any DuPont facilities, I was fortunate enough to join MTI as an Associate Director to support Projects and Projects development groups in MTI, as well as MTI’s European group for 14 years. I have been the Executive Director for two years now and am honored to be able to continue serving this great organization in my new role.
MTI is a unique collaborative organization of member companies in the processing industries. Company dues are pooled and available to fund non-proprietary studies and projects on the common problems that members identify as priorities. This structure allows us to be efficient, agile, and quickly fund projects as industry needs arise. We currently have $2.5M in funded projects underway, with more than 15 others in development. MTI Projects have played an important role in capturing materials engineering knowledge and making it accessible to a new generation of engineers, and in developing resources that don’t exist anywhere else.
Examples include our Materials Selector series of books, widely regarded as the gold standard for specific types of corrosive mediums, a series of Atlases of Microstructures for certain stainless steels and nickel alloys, which illustrate practically all product forms for a given alloy or family of alloys, including welds, heat affected zone (HAZ), properly and improperly aged, and exposed sample microstructures. MTI’s Guidance for Failure Mechanisms expands on API 571 to cover guidance mechanisms more commonly seen in the chemical processing industries. MTI projects also address gaps in technology or technical understanding. Recent ones have developed optimized probes for early stage HTHA (High Temperature Hydrogen Attack) detection, non-destructive testing (NDT) for fiber reinforced plastics (FRP) and non-metallics, and tools for predicting remaining life in SMR (Steam Methane Reforming) components. MTI projects directly affect the safety, reliability and sustainability of the processing industries, and I am proud to be a part of an organization that is making a difference in this way.
MTI is strongly led by companies in the processing industries involved in both intermediate chemical production and oil and gas refining. MTI member companies include those that handle the most challenging processes and want to do so with operating excellence and safety as a priority. Many of our key members are large, global companies, and participate in our meetings throughout the world. MTI is ideally structured to support such companies and enable them to make engineering decisions more efficiently through our resources and network.
The Nickel Institute has been a valued supporter and participant in MTI for 24 years. NI has been active in providing information on stainless steels, nickel alloys, welding, and fabrication that has facilitated the successful application of thee alloys in industry.
NI has supported MTI Training events and provides speakers at the regional Technical Advisory Council (TAC) meetings, especially AsiaTAC, as well as Championing and participating in MTI Projects. The organization’s support has made a difference in the safety and reliability of the equipment installed.
MTI began in North America in 1976, but as many of our companies are truly global, we expanded to Asia and Europe to meet our member companies’ needs in the early 2000s. MTI typically meets seven times per year with in-person Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) meetings; three in North America, two in Europe and two Asia. Many of our member companies send employees to each of the meetings. While MTI offers many webinars and remote training opportunities, the in-person meetings are ideal for truly sharing knowledge and collaborating to develop new project ideas. Each regional meeting offers training and technical content, provides opportunities for companies to share failures and challenges at their sites, and develops projects to address those challenges. MTI Projects are then conducted globally using whichever contractor is best suited for the project.
In addition to our regional TAC meetings, MTI offers trainings and roundtable events. We also have a Global Symposium every other year that is open to the public, includes an Exhibit Hall, and has multiple tracks of technical content over two days.
Many companies join MTI for the value in the projects because they are interested in one specific topic that MTI is investigating, or to influence MTI to take on a research topic of value to their company. This is undoubtedly the core of the value proposition for MTI. However, once in the MTI network, the value of the network itself becomes indispensable. MTI hosts an online Forum – available to members only, which receives answers by the incredible technical network of Subject Matter Experts within MTI, often within hours. Over 30 different member companies sought solutions and guidance in 2023, and over 10,000 posts (questions) are archived and searchable, which alone is a tremendous resource. Forum posts have prevented poor engineering decisions and even imminent failures, and nearly all support engineers in making efficient, timely and safer decisions. The network of MTI is a powerful benefit of membership.
Any MTI member can propose a project idea. Once the project has a technical lead, called a Champion, and support from other member companies, the TAC votes on the technical merits of the project, and the Board votes to approve funding for it. It is not uncommon for MTI projects to be funded and underway within a year of inception and securing a Champion, and they have been funded in as little as four months in some instances. Each regional TAC has Project Development Committees (PDCs) that prioritize the project ideas and determine the best way to meet the identified technical needs.
Beyond networking and training sessions, which are both undoubtedly done best in person, in-person meetings are the best format for brainstorming and working through new project ideas. Once a project is underway, teams will meet virtually to maximize progress, but brainstorming and development of the scope, objectives and deliverables are tasks most efficiently and effectively accomplished in person. We hope that companies will continue to support in-person travel to meetings, so that we can continue to deliver the most valuable projects to our members.
Information on all our upcoming events is available on our website - www.mti-global.org
Non-members are generally welcome to attend one meeting by invitation to see and experience what MTI is all about. Our biennial Global Symposium is open to non-members, as are the Roundtable events and many of our Training events, with different pricing structures. Only member companies can propose and Champion MTI project ideas, and generally have 18-month exclusive access to the final project deliverables as a membership benefit before released to the public for a fee.
