Plastic Engineering Associates, Inc. (Incorporated 1968)
Boca Raton, Florida
Plastic Engineering Associates, Inc. (Incorporated 1968) Boca Raton, Florida
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| CONSULTING BACKGROUND, CLIENT LIST & CAPABILITIES
Client List
CapabilitiesJames D. Fogarty has been actively involved in the plastics industry for more than 40 years. He began his career after obtaining a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute located in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1961.
A by-product of the research and development of the foam polystyrene Kleenex box was the thermoformed manual mass feeding cup, successfully developed and manufactured largely through Jim's expertise. Kimberly Clark Corporation had, for a period of two years prior to Jim's employ, unsuccessfully attempted to thermoform a low density polystyrene foam (1.8-2.2 grams) mass feeding cup. After Jim's tenure on the Kleenex box project, he was selected by the company to perform experimental research concerning the efficacy of thermoforming a cup with a draw ratio in excess of 1:1 from low density foam polystyrene. Three months of round the clock effort paid off, as the project was successful; to the best of Mr. Fogarty's and the company's knowledge, no person or company had developed similar technology. Understandably, Kimberly Clark decided to keep the project technology proprietary. From and through the years 1963 through 1966, Jim was employed by the Applied Research and Development Corporation (later acquired by Amoco Oil Company) in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. Jim was the Director of Research and Development. In this capacity, Jim was also responsible for the transfer of the company's technology to it's various licensees. Jim supervised and performed extensive research and development instrumental in the production of the first polystyrene foam meat and produce trays for the United States market. These were first used by the Kroger supermarket chain located at that time in Minneapolis, Minnesota. From and through the years 1966 through 1970, Jim was employed as General Manager, Polystyrene Foam Operations of the Chelsea Division of Diamond International, located in Chelsea, Massachusetts. At the request of the Chairman and President of Diamond International, Jim was asked if he would build a foam polystyrene extrusion and thermoforming plant large enough to provide technical and economic data of the then current state of the art manufacturing of polystyrene foam meat trays and 2 x 6 egg cartons, since at that time (late 1960's), Diamond International was the largest pulp manufacturer in the United States. This project was carried out to fruition specifically without the use of any of Diamond International's staff, as this project was, and was to be known, only to the Board of Directors and the President. The data obtained from the plastics plant very strongly indicated foam polystyrene egg cartons and meat trays would compete successfully in the marketplace against traditional pulp containers. From 1970 through 1975, Jim was a shareholder and President of Sterling Container Corporation located in Manchaug, Massachusetts. Under Jim's guidance and technical expertise, the company grew rapidly in the polystyrene foam custom sheet, egg carton and meat tray business in the greater New England area. Competitors in this area at this time included Mobil Oil Corporation, W.R. Grace, Valcore Imprinted Papers Incorporated and Dolco Packaging Co. In addition to Jim's normal responsibilities of operating the Manchaug, Massachusetts plastics factory, he traveled extensively on behalf of Sterling Container Corporation, and using his expertise and vast experience in the foam polystyrene industry, supervised the design, construction and installation of the machinery and physical plant sites in the Deutschland Democratic Republic, Great Britain, Belgium and Venezuela. Additionally, from 1972 through 1975, Jim was asked by Sterling Container Corporation's majority shareholder and sole owner of United Sterling Limited (London, England) to assist, on behalf of United Sterling Limited, in the development of a continuous mass process for the polymerization of polystyrene and further, to assist in the development of an expandable bead that would produce a superior printing surface specifically for molded cups. Both of these processes proved to be technically feasible and ultimately, have proved to be highly commercially successful. The majority of polystyrene produced worldwide today is by the continuous mass polymerization method. The expandable bead process proved to be successfully and was licensed to Crest Container Corporation (later known as Texstyrene). From 1976 through 1980, Jim was President and sole owner of Lake Wales Plastic Corporation, Westboro, Massachusetts. Lake Wales extruded custom foam polystyrene sheet and thermoformed meat trays and processor grade poultry trays. Additionally, Jim sold research & development and consulting services to Dow Chemical Company, Atlantic Richfield Oil Company, Allied Chemical Company, Japan Styrene Paper Company, Kanaka-Denka Company, Monsanto Chemical Company, Owens-Illinois, Inc., American Can Company, American Hoechst Corporation, Cascade Paper Company, Cobelplast Company, Irving Enterprises, Inoue Rubber Company, Marvin Catron Company, Nichimen Corporation, Palziv Company, Pepperidge Farms, R.L. Adams Plastics, Inc., Silver Plastics GmbH, Strom International Ltd., Zee Plastics, Egcart Inc., Gloucester Engineering Company, Instruments Systems, Corp., Solo Cup Corporation, Sekisui Chemical Company, among many others. From 1968 through the present, Jim has been President and owner of Plastic Engineering Associates, Inc. This company has provided consulting services and proprietary machinery exclusively for the foam polystyrene and foam polyethylene industry throughout the world. Jim's past and present activity areas include, but are not limited to, proprietary extrusion screw design, extrusion screw design upgrades, foam extrusion proprietary die and die designs, surface densification equipment, carbon dioxide injection equipment, specifications of foam polystyrene and polyethylene physical plants and equipment, and the related technical know-how incident to all of the above. In the early 1990's, Jim began development work on improving his foam screw designs which were greatly disseminated throughout the world and still in use in the vast majority of foam industry manufacturers. The culmination of Jim's unparalleled 40+ years of foam experience & knowledge, Turbo-Screws® have undisputably become the world's highest productivity feed screws in the foam industry. With 6 United States Patents granted on his primary and secondary feed screw designs and over 40 foreign patents granted or pending, Turbo-Screws® have become a huge commercial success by any measure. A typical, although by no means exhaustive, GUIDELINE TO SERVICES that might be provided to a prospective client is as follows: (a) Tandem systems 2. Foam extrusion-polyethylene-sheet, profile & insulation plank/board. (a) Twin screw systems 4. Laminating in-line or off-line of cast film or Trycite. 5. Foam Core, Art Board and Pizza Box Board in-line and off-line. 6. Scrap Recovery and Reclaim Systems. (a) Direct re-feed scrap 7. Thermoforming and Thermoforming Tooling. A. Physical Plant Requirements (a) Raw materials, goods in process, finished goods B. Utility Requirements--for production, for total plant. (a) Electrical--full demand load, running consumption C.1 Raw material handling. (a) Polymer-bulk or bag storage and conveying C.2 Blending and Feeding. (a) Polymer in-bead, flake, cylindric or fluff foam C.3 Process Instrumentation. (a) Drive systems C.4 Scrap Reclamation. (a) Grinders C.5 Product Storage, Handling & Transportation of Equipment. (a) Gas Detection D. Quality Control and Laboratory. Instruments and apparatus for raw material, sheet and product properties, including: melt index, size distribution, moisture, thickness, basis weight, density, cell size, cell wall thickness, orientation, tensile, stiffness, open cells and post expansion.
(a) Set-up, alignment, wiring and plumbing F. Development Procedure Conduct test runs to establish the formulation and process conditions for the product requirements G. Production runs to establish formulation & process conditions for the product requirements
(a) Process technology |
Send mail to Bill.Fogarty@turboscrews.com with questions or comments about this web site. |
