KE Collab, LLC works with metal casting production and design teams to identify the root causes of casting defects and develop data-driven action plans that result in improved profit margins, on-time delivery, resulting in an overall increase in customer satisfaction.

We evaluate new and existing casting designs and gating/riser systems for quality, yield, and cost improvements. Our engineering services offer a strong focus on developing skills for efficient communication between metal casting suppliers and their designers and buyers to build long-term, mutually beneficial relationships.

Shelly Dutler
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Shelly Dutler

Principal | Engineer

Shelly leverages her twenty-five years of experience in casting design and production to collaborate with metal casting design, sourcing and production teams in developing data-driven action plans that improve efficiency and scrap rates and instill effective communication techniques to build long-term, mutually beneficial relationships.

She earned a Master’s in Materials Science and Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology studying metallurgy, solidification behaviors of metals, and crystallography and performed research on high temperature mechanical tensile and creep properties of a martensitic stainless steel alloy. Shelly also holds a Bachelor of Science in Manufacturing Technology from University of Northern Iowa’s (UNI) Foundry Educational Foundation accredited metal casting program. While at UNI, her senior project team, supported by John Deere Project Engineering Center, proved the feasibility of early wax and polymer 3D printed parts as investment casting patterns.

Her research in thermophysical properties of alloys and molding materials has been published in Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A and American Foundry Society Transactions. She has held positions in casting and tooling design, casting process simulation, and metal casting workforce development at John Deere, Magma Foundry Technologies, Inc. and American Foundry Society Institute.

Shelly chairs the UNI Department of Applied Engineering & Technical Management Advisory Council. She is also an active member of the Society of Women Engineers and volunteers at STEM outreach events.