Meet Nye: Nicole St. Pierre
Nicole St. Pierre has been with Nye for 20 years and has been recently appointed to the role of Emerging Technology Innovation Manager where she now focuses on growing Nye’s research and development capabilities to develop new products for next-generation technologies. Prior to her current role, Nicole spent 12 years as Nye’s Technical Development manager after having started at Nye as a Research and Development chemist. She specializes in formulating custom additive packages for lubricants that will be used in complex applications. Nicole holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
What are some of the changes and breakthroughs you have seen in the way lubricants are formulated since you started at Nye 20 years ago?
When I first started at Nye, we didn’t do a lot of additive studies to fully understand all their benefits but that has changed dramatically over these past 10 years. My team has performed fundamental research studies on additives to fully understand what conditions they perform the best in. We then use this information to put together an effective additive package for a specific application. Our tribology, rheology, and applications testing capabilities and our understanding in these areas has also grown tremendously, which has helped Nye’s R&D team develop novel products for a host of applications in various industries.
How does Nye’s research and development process differ from that of other lubricant companies?
I think the biggest difference is that as products are being developed in the R&D lab, there is collaboration with our application’s and tribology labs to understand how the additive chemistries in the formulation are working to meet the performance needs of the lubricant in the customer’s application. The application’s lab will build test rigs to mimic the customer application which allows for the screening of several additive chemistries. This ensures that we provide the customer with a formulation that has a higher success rate and meets their application needs. If a sample fails on the application test rig, we can analyze the component to determine why and how it failed which helps us determine what changes need to be made to the formulation. The tribology lab allows us to test different additive chemistries in various lubrication regimes which helps us identify the proper additive package to formulate into the lubricant for that application.
What role do lubricants play in ensuring the safety of hybrid and electric vehicles?
Lubricants for electrical switches, contacts, and connectors will be even more critical as the automotive industry moves towards rapid electrification and increased electronics in vehicles. This shift will result in the number of electrical connectors and contacts growing from 100’s to 1000’s per vehicle. Electronic control systems, particularly in hybrid and electric vehicles, are increasing in the number of sensors that are safety-critical. The failure of these sensors will disrupt vehicle function and endanger human lives. Brake pedal sensors, wheel speed sensors, rotary position sensors for electric power steering (EPS), and sensors for airbag deployment are a few examples where an instantaneous short circuit, or a communication network fault due to loss of electrical signal can be catastrophic.
Nye’s line of dielectric greases was carefully designed to help prevent fretting wear and corrosion caused by the micromotion from vibration and heating/cooling cycles. Wear and oxidation on contacts, switches, and connectors leads to increases in contact resistance which eventually becomes so great that continuity is lost, and the electrical circuit fails. Using proper lubrication in contacts, connectors, and switches will increase reliability, extend life of contacts, help avoid recalls, and reduce warranty costs.
Learn more about the importance of using grease in electrical contacts and the materials utilized in these greases that ensure the durability and reliability requirements of these safety systems are met at my presentation at the Electric Hybrid Vehicle show In Novi, Michigan on September 10.
What is your favorite part about working for Nye?
That’s a hard question because there are a lot of reasons I enjoy working at Nye! Working on the challenging projects for unique applications that our products go into is on the top of the list as I learn new things every day. Knowing that products you formulate are going into safety-critical applications for automotive and aviation applications is very rewarding knowing you are making a difference. Lastly, I get to work daily with a very talented applications and R&D team that are innovative thinkers that bring the best out of each other with a drive for excellence while working in a healthy, positive work environment. There is a genuine spirit of cooperation and shared goals all revolving around helping the customer.
