LOWELL, MASS. (Nov. 29, 3:30 p.m. ET) — The Plastics Hall of Fame has a new home at The University of Massachusetts Lowell’s newest plastics building.
UMass Lowell unveiled the new home of the Plastics Hall of Fame Gallery during Industry Day festivities on Nov. 15, attended by about 350 people at its new Emerging Technologies and Innovation Center.
“It was mainly for us to acknowledge our equipment suppliers and to allow people to see what we have. We still have more space,” said Bob Malloy, chairman of the school’s plastics engineering department.
The gallery is located in the clean room wing of the ETIC and shows the newest members of the Plastics of Fame in full panel sheets. The acrylic cover sheets were donated by Evonik Cyro LLC.
The gallery will feature the current class honored by the Plastics Academy. Malloy said that it includes the 10 newest members as well as Stephanie Kwolek, the only female member; and John Wesley Hyatt, American entrepreneur.
Future plans also are to feature an electronic version of all Hall of Fame members.
As for the Hall of Fame being located at Lowell, Malloy noted, “Who would be more interested in learning about the members than the students? We also get a fair share of visitors.”
Among the companies honored with renderings of the building were Gloucester Engineering, Arburg Corp., Sumitomo DeMag, Dri-Air Industries Inc., C.W. Brabender Instruments Inc., Dynisco LLC, Technovel Corp. and Glycon Corp. The Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. also was cited.
“We just wanted to bring in the people who helped make it possible either by consigning equipment or through their donations,” Malloy said.
Malloy said the school has been busy starting up new machinery in the building and testing what the equipment can do. The newest addition to the school is a four-screw Technovel compounder.
