Rahul Verma

Author Bio

Rahul Verma is a Manager – Sales & Operations at Infinita Lab, Rahul Verma holds an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master’s in Materials Science and Engineering from IIT Patna, with a specialization in thermal spray coatings to enhance the mechanical and tribological performance of marine vehicles. Thermal spray is a deceptively rich area — the right combination of feedstock chemistry, deposition method, process parameters, and post-processing can take a base substrate that would corrode in a marine environment within months and extend its service life by an order of magnitude. The wrong combination produces porosity, residual stress, and adhesion failure that is worse than no coating at all. That hands-on materials-development experience is the foundation Rahul brings to his customer work at Infinita Lab.

Before joining Infinita Lab, Rahul held R&D roles at two early-stage startups, focusing on additive manufacturing, materials characterization, and developing application-specific material solutions. Additive manufacturing in a startup context means owning the full loop — feedstock qualification, print-parameter development, post-processing protocol, characterization strategy, and qualification framework — without the safety net of an established materials database or a captive lab. That kind of R&D pressure trains a specific skill: the ability to ask the right characterization question first, because the project does not have a budget for the wrong one. Most additive manufacturing failures are not print failures; they are characterization-strategy failures upstream.

Areas of Testing and Materials Expertise

Rahul’s working expertise spans:

Thermal spray coatings — HVOF, plasma spray, cold spray, and arc spray — including characterization of coating thickness, adhesion (ASTM C633), porosity (ASTM E2109), microhardness (ASTM E384), bond strength, oxide content, wear performance, and corrosion resistance.

Tribological testing — pin-on-disc, ball-on-disc, scratch testing (ASTM C1624), abrasive wear (ASTM G65), erosive wear (ASTM G76), and reciprocating wear under application-specific conditions for coatings, bulk materials, and surface-engineered components.

Additive manufacturing characterization — density and porosity analysis (Archimedes, CT), microstructure evaluation, mechanical properties of as-built and post-processed parts, residual stress analysis (XRD, hole-drilling), dimensional accuracy, and surface finish characterization across powder-bed fusion, directed energy deposition, and binder-jetting processes.

Materials characterization — optical microscopy, SEM/EDS, XRD for phase identification, hardness mapping, EBSD for texture and grain analysis, and metallographic preparation for the full spectrum of metallic and ceramic systems.

Coatings qualification for marine, industrial, aerospace, and defense applications where service-life evidence is the deliverable — not just a single pass/fail result.

Professional Experience