After the company started running into financial troubles, Rauwendaal took the cue to look for another job. "After four years at Enka, the company was not doing well. They were laying off people. They were closing plants. I decided I did not want to work for a dying company," he said.
Armed with a background in extrusion gained over the years at Enka, Rauwendaal started applying for other positions and got four job offers out of the six inquires he made.
"The one from Raychem looked to me that they were the most interesting one. It helped that they were located in California," Rauwendaal said.
He had spent a summer internship in the United States while in college and took the opportunity to head west to see the country and Mexico before returning back to school in Europe. He bought an old Dodge for $75 and hit the road.
"It looked awful. It was rusty, but the engine was good and the brakes were good. I didn't care that the car looked unappealing. I just needed something that was dependable," he said. After a couple of months and probably 10,000 miles on the road, he was able to sell the car, again for $75, before heading back to school.
It was after returning to the Netherlands that he met his future wife, Sietske, who had also spent considerable time in the United States. Feeling homesick, she had returned to her homeland but soon discovered she preferred the U.S. So the two married and headed back to start their lives.
Rauwendaal pointed to the varied experiences available to him as an employee of Raychem. The company used a variety of processing techniques as well as many different types of resin in their production.
"You learned a lot of equipment and material science. It was an exciting place to work," he said. "There was a wide variety of operations and also equipment. For a process engineer, [it was] a perfect place to work and to learn. Plus the fact that they used pretty much any kind of plastic you heard of."
Rauwendaal has a keen desire to teach and share his knowledge of extrusion and has conducted seminars on the subject for decades, first for the Society of Plastics Engineers and now through his own company. He also has written seven books in his career, mostly concerning extrusion.
It's his very first book, Polymer Extrusion, that's gained him wide acknowledgment in the extrusion industry. Rauwendaal estimates there have been "tens of thousands" of copies sold since the first edition in the 1980s. The book has been updated five times over the years to include more information and reflect changes in technology over time.
Writing and teaching scratches an itch he has long had. Rauwendaal once saw the potential of becoming a university professor but then dismissed that idea after learning that much of his time would be used to write proposals seeking funding. Spending all that time away from actual education was not one bit appealing to him.
Rauwendaal, after seeing the success of his SPE seminars and his first book, decided to hang out his own consultancy shingle in 1990. He figured it was time to share his knowledge after 17 years at both Enka and Raychem. He never considered a move away from extrusion given the base of knowledge he had acquired.
"At that point, I could not see myself switching and giving all that up, all that knowledge I had accumulated. I wanted to do something with it," he said. "I found teaching very gratifying.
"I'm very proud of the fact that I've been teaching to thousands of people over the years. Generally, I received very positive feedback, and I made friends. I've developed a lot of pleasant relationships through that. That is something that has given me a lot of satisfaction," he said.
Rauwendaal said he was informed earlier this year about his induction into the class of 2024.
"This is as good of a start of the year as you can get," he said. "I'm very pleased. Even though I've enjoyed the work I've done over the past 50 years or so, it really is a good feeling to be recognized by your people for having done something that is worthwhile.
"I decided I wanted to be an engineer at 8 years old. I don't know why," he said.
Rauwendaal credits some of his success to one characteristic.
"I think with the fact that I'm left-handed, that my brain works a little different than the brain of most people," he said. And Rauwendaal uses this to his advantage over time to tackle projects and solve problems.
Faced with an extrusion dilemma for one of his clients, he will often wake up in the middle of the night, roll the details over and over in his mind, and find a solution while lying in bed. And there's no need to write anything down as he always goes back to sleep and remembers the details in the morning.
