The Plastics Hall of Fame will welcome nine new members — eight men and one woman — when they are inducted during NPE 2015.
The new Hall of Famers are a diverse bunch, including the head of a major German injection press manufacturer, a top executive of a Canadian maker of pipe corrugating equipment, a trade association leader, two pioneers in polyolefin material, one man who developed polyethylene for blow molded plastic milk bottles, another man the inventor of the slurry polymerization process, a former president of the Society of Plastics Engineers, a global expert in structural foam molding technology and an academic leader who developed a new way to balance multi-cavity molds.
The Plastics Academy, working with the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc., announced the inductees. The new members are: John Beaumont, Terry Browitt, William Carteaux, Robert DeLong, Eugen Hehl, Edward Hunerberg, Manfred Lupke, Donald Norwood and Maureen Steinwall.
Steinwall, president and CEO of custom injection molder Steinwall Inc., becomes only the second woman inducted into the Plastics Hall of Fame. The first was Stephanie Kwolek, the inventor of Kevlar, who died June 18.
The nine industry leaders will be inducted into the Plastics Hall of Fame March 22 at a ceremony and dinner which kicks off NPE 2015.
“The Academy is very honored to introduce the Class of 2015, consisting of individuals from the various disciplines within plastics, and also representative of the global growth and development of our industry,” said Jay Gardiner, president of the Plastics Academy. “We are also looking forward to the new format for the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremonies at NPE 2015.”
The Plastics Hall of Fame is housed at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell.
Here is more information about the new Plastics Hall of Famers, in alphabetical order: