Ryan Wilmes is recognized as a “go-to” leader for all manner of heat treat problem solving, both by fellow employees and clients. With a bachelor’s in Materials Science and Engineering from Purdue University, Ryan started his career as a process metallurgist at Oerlikon in 2016. He later worked for AAM (American Axle & Manufacturing) as a metallurgist in 2017, earning a FANUC America Corporation certification in HandingTool Operations and Programming in 2018. Ryan went on to establish himself at Thermal Modification Technologies in 2019, where he works as a metallurgist and manager of Induction & Ion Nitride.

At TMT, Ryan leads by example, with humility, and without complaint, sharing his metallurgical knowledge and technical expertise freely. He has voluntarily championed numerous continuous improvement initiatives, ranging from reducing consumable costs, shortening cycle times, streamlining operations, and improving quality. When initiating ideas, he has projected their impacts and executed them by interfacing with outside vendors and internal employees and then training fellow employees on new systems. His greatest accomplishment in the industry has been assisting clients in bringing their products to market by helping tailor heat treating solutions for them. An example of this involved helping a Portland startup company engineer a solution to scale up an artisan technique to full-scale production and seeing them grow into a successful company. Ryan thrives on developing heat treat solutions for clients with existing products that are falling short of end-user needs. Andy Tobin, president at Thermal Modification Technologies, stated about Ryan, “Our shop and the local manufacturing industry is better because of his presence."