PARENT TECHNOLOGY GROUP  -
ENGINEERING CONSULTING EXPERT WITNESS

AND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT SERVICES

Forensic Engineering

Failure Analysis

Fires

Accidents

Product Development

About parent technology group

We deliver high-quality engineering consulting and expert witness services that provide exceptional value for our clients. We have provided engineering consulting and expert witness services for more than twenty years and consulted on over one hundred cases.

PTG's principal, Donald Parent, was a Member of Technical Staff at Bell Laboratories in his early career, where he worked on digital data storage systems, and a design engineer at GTE designing semiconductor heaters and other components for the auto industry. Later, he was VP of Engineering for a high voltage electrostatic systems company and Engineering Director for a startup company specializing in the manufacture of automated machines for producing CD's and DVD's. He then founded D2 Inline Solutions, which applied technologies developed for CD and DVD manufacturing to a broader range of metallized products, such as the Gillette Mach 3 shaver packaging and caps and closures used by L'Oréal and others. Mr. Parent has an extensive background in the engineering, design, and operation of a broad range of mechanical, electromechanical, and electrical products, systems and machines.

• Registered Professional Engineer, 35+ years
• Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering - Stanford University
• Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering - Northeastern University (Summa Cum Laude)
• 25+ Patents
• Engineering practitioner, company founder, CTO, VP Engineering
• Experienced in mechanical engineering, electromechanical systems, electrical engineering, and product design
• Focused on expert witness consulting in the areas of product failures, fires, explosions, and patents

About parent technology group

We deliver high-quality engineering consulting and expert witness services that provide exceptional value for our clients. We have provided engineering consulting and expert witness services for more than twenty years and consulted on over one hundred cases.

PTG's principal, Donald Parent, was a Member of Technical Staff at Bell Laboratories in his early career, where he worked on digital data storage systems, and a design engineer at GTE designing semiconductor heaters and other components for the auto industry. Later, he was VP of Engineering for a high voltage electrostatic systems company and Engineering Director for a startup company specializing in the manufacture of automated machines for producing CD's and DVD's. He then founded D2 Inline Solutions, which applied technologies developed for CD and DVD manufacturing to a broader range of metallized products, such as the Gillette Mach 3 shaver packaging and caps and closures used by L'Oréal and others. Mr. Parent has an extensive background in the engineering, design, and operation of a broad range of mechanical, electromechanical, and electrical products, systems and machines.

• Registered Professional Engineer, 35+ years
• Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering - Stanford University
• Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering - Northeastern University (Summa Cum Laude)
• 25+ Patents
• Engineering practitioner, company founder, CTO, VP Engineering
• Experienced in mechanical engineering, electromechanical systems, electrical engineering, and product design
• Focused on expert witness consulting in the areas of product failures, fires, explosions, and patents

SERVICES

Parent Technology Group provides forensic engineering and expert witness services relating to failures, accidents, fires and explosions, and intellectual property analysis. PTG also provides product design services.

Accidents, failures, fires, and explosions are often interrelated. Accidents can cause failures or fires, failures can cause accidents, fires can cause explosions, and so on. A thorough forensic investigation requires a depth of skills in a broad range of disciplines. PTG provides forensic engineering and expert witness services relating to mechanical, electrical, and electromechanical systems. For complex investigations that require skills beyond our immediate capability, we collaborate with other highly regarded experts.

EXPERT WITNESS

PTG provides accident investigation and expert witness services. Expert witnesses provide testimony in legal cases for the purpose of stating expert opinion about a specific scientific or technical matter. An expert witness has the professional expertise and training to testify authoritatively on the matter in question and possesses strong technical skills, confidence in the material subject areas, and strong testimonial, presentation, and persuasion skills. We have long-standing experience as both practicing engineers, as skilled presenters in our fields, and as expert witnesses.

Failure Analysis

Failure analysis is the process of identifying the root cause of a failure. We have investigated hundreds of failures relating to mechanical, electromechanical, and electrical systems, through detailed evidence examination, document review, and engineering analysis using traditional and computer-based methods such as Finite Element Analysis (FEA), Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), and other tools. We have expertise in the following areas:

Commercial Equipment, Industrial Equipment, Machines and Machinery

High Temperature and High Energy Systems

SAFETY FIRST

FIRES AND EXPLOSIONS

Parent Technology Group provides forensic engineering and expert witness services relating to failures, accidents, fires and explosions, and intellectual property analysis. PTG also provides product design services.

Accidents, failures, fires, and explosions are often interrelated. Accidents can cause failures or fires, failures can cause accidents, fires can cause explosions, and so on. A thorough forensic investigation requires a depth of skills in a broad range of disciplines. PTG provides forensic engineering and expert witness services relating to mechanical, electrical, and electromechanical systems. For complex investigations that require skills beyond our immediate capability, we collaborate with other highly regarded experts.

Incident Examples:

Accidents

Accidents are unfortunate events that happen unintentionally and can result in injury, damage, or loss. They can result in a range of outcomes, including personnel injuries, failures, fires and explosions. PTG has investigated numerous accidents. Some of which resulted in damage or loss, and others have caused fires or explosions. We apply the same analysis tools and methods utilized for failure analysis for these investigations. This includes laboratory testing, surveillance video analysis, engineering analysis, and computer modeling using FEA, CFD or other tools as needed.

Accidents:

PRODUCT DESIGN

PTG has worked on numerous product design projects, many of which are in common use today.

We believe that ongoing exercise of our product design skills complements our expert witness and engineering consulting work. Recently, Parent Technology Group was the prime contractor for a solar fabric design project funded by the US Army through a Broad Area Announcement award. As project lead, we worked with the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), the US Army, the University of Maine, the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, and Saint Gobain in this effort. This work resulted in two issued patents, and a third patent application on file. Our work on solar fabrics is ongoing.

Patents & Intellectual Property

As engineering practitioners with more than 25 patents, we recognize the importance of ensuring the value of your work.

Claims review
Claims define and limit the intellectual property protection provided by a patent. Proper reading and interpretation require familiarity with the patent process and technical competence in the subject matter.

Infringement
Infringement occurs if a product falls within the scope of a valid patent's claims. Such a determination requires an understanding of claims construction, and a technical understanding of a products features and design,

Prior art
The existence of prior art can obviate the patentability of a new product or invention. At the early stages of a patent application, knowledge of the technical details of existing prior art provides the foundation for the development of a robust patent application. After issuance, new prior art may emerge. Technical analysis of the features of this art is critical to determining the likelihood of infringement.

Forensic evaluation
Forensic engineering seeks to identify a product's cause or causes of failure. The goal may be to improve or change the design of a product to eliminate the problem, or to assist a court in determining the facts relative to an accident or dispute.

Reverse engineering
Reverse engineering seeks to determine the basic operational principles of a product or design with the goal of developing new competing versions of a product or determining its flaws and weaknesses. Reverse engineering starts with application engineering first principles to a known design. At PTG, our experience in product design and our background in mechanical and electromechanical systems will ensure accurate and thorough results.

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