Chemistry Overview

Chemical Laboratory Technician, Bidwell Training Center

"My job as a specialist technician is to work on foams, a variety of foams, the flexible foams for car seats. We work on insulation foams, this one in particular is for a truck, a refrigeration truck and we work on energy absorbing foams for car bumpers. We actually don't make the foam; our customers make these foams- we make them here onsite so that we can test them and optimize and find the best properties for our customers; we sell the raw materials that make the foams.

I sit down with my senior scientist. He's a Ph.D. chemist. Our interaction is he'll give the assignment- primarily the material that he wants and the parts by weight that he wants put there; it's my job to formulate those things and then to make the foams and test the foams and see whether we've come close to the properties that he was looking for."