Plastics News correspondent Roger Renstrom gathered these items during the SAMPE 2001 exhibition, May 7-9 in Long Beach, Calif.
SAMPE inducts 3 into fellowship at banquet
Harry Katz, Louis Pilato and Gary Valentine were inducted as SAMPE Fellows at a May 9 banquet. They join 78 previously named as fellows for their outstanding achievements.
Katz operates research organization Utility Development Co., which employs eight in Livingston, N.J., and specialty coatings producer Rad-Core Corp., employing 20 in Fairfield, N.J. He started as a material engineer at Thiokol Corp.'s reaction motor division and worked at Curtiss-Wright Aeronautical Corp. before becoming an entrepreneur and handbook editor.
Pilato of Bound Brook, N.J., consults on material science issues, including polymer matrix composites and resin systems such as phenolics. He was involved in Union Carbide Corp. research on plastics and chemicals from 1962-78, and then for a few years he manufactured wetable foam for use with fresh flowers.
Valentine is senior manager overseeing a series of domestic and international engineering programs for Raytheon Co.'s systems subsidiary in El Segundo, Calif.
He joined Hughes Aircraft Co. as a material and process engineer in 1964 and remained with the organization when Raytheon acquired Hughes in 1997. Valentine was 1987 SAMPE president.
Sandford calling for `revolution' in address
Development of advanced material systems takes far too long, Thaddeus Sandford said in his May 8 keynote address. Future material advances ``may need to be revolutionary rather than evolutionary,'' said Sandford, vice president of engineering operations for Boeing Co.'s space and communications group in Seal Beach, Calif.
Today, the technology of computers and electronics has the lead in aerospace programs. The industry ``can't wait for the long time materials take'' and has ``quit pacing programs on materials development,'' Sandford said.
``We need to change the equation,'' he said.
Sandford envisions a transition to designing materials at the molecular level.
Briefly ...
Cecil W. Schneider has established the Marietta, Ga., consulting firm of CEC Technologies and intends to continue advocating composite technology applications in industries beyond aerospace. Schneider retired April 30. He had been director of engineering for new business in Marietta for Lockheed Martin Co.'s aeronautics unit. ... Paul W. Pendorf is negotiating to buy an existing composites business for recently formed acquisition-vehicle AMT II Corp. of Marina del Rey, Calif. Pendorf was president and chief executive officer of American Materials & Technologies Corp. beginning in 1995. He sold the publicly traded business to Cytec Industries Inc. of West Paterson, N.J., in 1998 and remained in a Cytec corporate position through Dec. 31. ... Three-dimensional fabric developer 3Tex Inc. of Cary, N.C., has signed a strategic alliance under which TPI Composites Inc. of Warren, R.I., will evaluate a new family of 3Tex preforms for wind turbine blades and other applications. Also, 3Tex agreed to have Composites Specialists of Laguna Niguel, Calif., promote and distribute 3Tex's 3Carbonbillet products throughout the western United States. ... Custom raw material supplier Daychem Laboratories Inc. purchased a newly constructed, 30,000-square-foot facility on 8.5 acres in Vandalia, Ohio, and, in March, moved 15 miles from its Centerville, Ohio, location. Principal end uses for Daychem materials include aircraft engine and semiconductor photo-resist components. ... Unitech LLC of Wake Forest, N.C., is commercializing RP46 polyimide resin under a National Aeronautics and Space Administration license. The first application involves a part for a space shuttle mock-up. Unitech sees strong potential in coating bearings, pumps and electrical motor wires.