He transferred to Star Aluminium, the Alusuisse UK operation, in 1966 as Chief Metallurgist of the Wolverhampton and Bridgnorth plants. Star Aluminium specialised in thin strip and foil rolling. In 1970, he moved to the group's main German plant at Singen, West Germany where he worked on bright and laminated rolled products. He returned to the UK in 1971 as Technical Manager for all Alusuisse UK manufacturing. In 1980 he moved inside the Alusuisse group to LMG at Essen in West Germany to work on the group's main research and development project involving the production of canstock, principally for the North American brewing industry. He was responsible for an extensive testing programme in the USA and was for a time resident in the Denver area.

In 1981 he transferred to the Group's head office in Zurich, Switzerland and in 1984 moved offices to the group's main research and development facility at Neuhausen, Switzerland, close to the German border. At Neuhausen he was head of the department responsible for wrought product process development and later for development and promotion of marine and offshore use of aluminium.

In 1995 he was appointed Project Manager at Alusuisse Road & Rail for design and construction of the structure of Transrapid , the German high speed magnetic levitation train. At this time he also remained responsible for Alusuisse Marine.

In 2000 he returned to Alusuisse Singen, which shortly afterwards became Alcan Singen, to work on the development and supply of aluminium automotive components.

In a career spanning over 40 years in the aluminium and engineering industries Robert Dean has been actively engaged at the forefront of material and process development and has worked to promote optimised light weight solutions for a wide range of transport and general industrial applications.