When you're new to the world of plastics, the language of the industry looks like a combination of Greek, Sanskrit and Klingon.
Thankfully for me, there were people like Vivian Malpass to help translate.
Malpass died at age 87 on Feb. 19. His career as a plastics engineer and researcher stretched for more than half a century, as did his involvement with the Society of Plastics Engineers.
Shortly after my own plastics career began in 1997, SPE sent me a copy of the proceedings from that year's Thermoplastic Elastomers (TPE) TopCon event. This was the era when it was no big deal to print out a 348-page book of presentations for attendees and others.
That year's proceedings included a 16-page guide to thermoplastic elastomers written by Malpass, who a year earlier had started his own consulting firm after working for various plastics makers for almost 40 years.
In his presentation, Malpass spelled out the various TPE families, their uses and which companies made which ones. I relied on this guide as a reference for many years.
Having no plastics experience, Viv's TPE guide was extremely helpful as I navigated so many words that started with "poly" and tried to figure out why different types of nylon were numbered.
Going through the proceedings book this week was a real trip down memory lane. That year's conference committee included such luminaries as Krishna Venkataswamy, Rudy School, Jeff Stachler and Bob Wegelin. Speakers at the event included Robert Eller, Edwin Tam, Deepak Parikh and Larry Johnson. These events were like the Woodstock and Lollapalooza of the plastics world.
I met Viv several times over the years and always made sure to thank him for writing that guide that steered me through the TPE wilderness. I hope the next generation of plastics professionals can find people and resources like I did.