ARM Hall of Fame Inductees

L-R Bill Spenceley, Jon Razlaff, ??, Conchita Miranda, Horacio Lobo, Ravi Mehra, Susan Gibson, Celal Beysel, Martin Coles, Aldo Quaratino, ???, ???, and ???

ARM HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES Susan Gibson and Martin Coles Honored JENNIFER GIBSON HEBERT, JSJ PRODUCTIONS, INC.

The Rotational Molding Hall of Fame is dedicated to the recognition of rotational molders, suppliers, and professional members. The award is the highest honor the Association of Rotational Molders (ARM) bestows on an individual for outstanding service, accomplishments, and contributions to further the growth of the rotational molding industry. The Rotational Molding Hall of Fame award is presented each year at the ARM Annual Fall Meeting. This year’s Hall of Fame inductees were Susan Gibson, publisher and editor of RotoWorld® magazine, and Martin Coles, President and CEO of Matrix Polymers.

Susan Gibson

Susan Gibson’s 30+ year career in Rotational Molding begin in 1991 when she founded Rotation magazine for the Association of Rotational Molders. In 2005, she founded RotoWorld® magazine for the Rotational Molding & Plastics Design Industries worldwide.

RotoWorld delivers articles, information, thought-leader opinion pieces and case studies on technologies, innovation, product design, process enhancements, materials, equipment, market updates, business strategies, etc. to the Rotational Molding community.

Gibson is a tireless promoter, advocate, and ambassador of the

worldwide Rotomolding industry, and has attended and reported on industry events across virtually every continent and in every major Rotational Molding market. Through her efforts and advocacy, Susan has increased the awareness of Rotational Molding as a versatile and valueadded manufacturing process to students, processors, designers, product developers, and supply chain participants throughout the world, and has served as one of the industry’s most effective promoters of Rotational Molding to a global audience.

Susan is President of JSJ Productions, Inc. which she owns in partnership with her daughter, Caption

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Jennifer Gibson Hebert. Susan is a member of St. Stephens Episcopal Church and Lakeway Women’s Club in Austin. She has served on numerous business and community boards including serving as President of “If I Could Speak”, a non-profit organization for the educational benefit of children with Autism, Trustee of St. Stephens Episcopal School of Wimberley, Texas, Co-founder of the West Texas Teen Court program for the adjudication of juvenile offenders by their peers, Co-founder of a Half-Way House for female addiction in West Texas, and Past President of the Legislative Wives Club for the Texas Legislature...to name a few.

In her acceptance speech, Gibson thanked ARM and the Hall of Fame members for such an incredible honor. “The Hall of Fame members are exceptional leaders, and their efforts and achievements have played a major role in making the industry what it is today,” she said. Gibson was deeply honored to have been given a seat at their table.

Gibson recognized the RotoWorld Contributing Editors and thanked the advertisers who make the magazine possible. She introduced her family including her husband, Bob, her two children, Joe Gibson and Jennifer GIbson-Hebert, and her two best friends from over 50 years, Cindy Murchison and Sandra Schrager.

She in specific thanked her daughter Jennifer for being her partner in business over the past 24 years.

Gibson remembered how she got started and gave credit to those involved at the time. She gave great credit to Professor Roy Crawford as a giant in the Rotational Molding industry 32 ROTOWORLD® ISSUE 5 • 2024

who had fostered working closely with universities and institutions of higher learning by publishing research that would be so important to industry development. Gibson talked about her time at Queens University in Belfast, Northern Ireland where she learned about the process.

Crawford was her mentor and the first Technical Director for the magazine. Crawford remained Technical Director until his passing in 2016.

Gibson talked about her travels throughout the world to cover the Rotational Molding industry and how it had changed her and

and friends.

Ending her talk, Gibson said the Rotational molding industry is truly unique. What once was known as a ‘black art” industry just for making tanks, it today a strong, vibrant niche plastics manufacturing industry that produces products that serve all areas of commerce and consumers’ lives - from ocean going tanks and infrastructure to beautiful lawn and garden furniture. From Z Pods beds for special needs children to sturdy Hippo Rollers for people in Africa to use to haul potable water for their families. She urged the audience to just think

“THE HALL OF FAME MEMBERS ARE EXCEPTIONAL LEADERS, AND THEIR EFFORTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS HAVE PLAYED A MAJOR ROLE IN MAKING THE INDUSTRY WHAT IT IS TODAY.” — Susan Gibson formed unforgettable experiences.

She recognized ARMO and the regional Rotomolding Associations throughout the world for their vital contributions to the industry and its growth.

Gibson stated there have been many, many people within the industry that have great influence on her life and career. While she will always cherish leaders like Professor Roy Crawford, Eric Boersch, and Jose Miranda, who are no longer with us, she is equally grateful to a large number of leaders and colleagues that she is honored to call her colleagues

for a moment about the sheer scope of the industry’s reach. It facilitates automotive, marine, medical, leisure, agriculture, and technology sectors along with countless others. While many Rotomolded products are beautiful in their own right, others are truly works of art, noting the Tulip chairs in urban Holland, the Swirly Top chairs in Mid-Town Manhattan, and the Giraffe in Love in Italy. Rotomolded products are in factories, businesses, high end hotels and the homes of celebrities. But above all of that, “This is an industry that matters,”

Susan Gibson and Daven Claerbout

she said. “It is an industry of stability and possibility,” she said.

Gibson ended with saying, “It is my hope that our industry magazine has in some meaningful way, blessed you, your company, your career, and your products.

It has been my pleasure to raise the profile and showcase the capability of a simply amazing industry.”

Martin Coles

Martin Coles joined the global Rotomolding industry in the 1980s working for the Italian Polyethylene producer EniChem.

For the last 38 years, he has championed the process and the industry. He founded Matrix Polymers in the UK with fellow Hall of Famer Dr. Nick Henwood 32 years ago. Today the company is one of the largest material suppliers in the world dedicated

solely to Rotomolding, with six manufacturing sites located across three continents and more than 250 employees. Martin presents at conferences in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and the US. He and his staff frequently provide workshops at conferences and open-day forums at multiple facilities to demonstrate new technology and progress in the industry. He is a Contributing Editor to RotoWorld®, writing articles focused on energy efficiency, developing young talent to support the future, and how the benefits of the process can be more broadly used. He has also sparked the industry to respond more aggressively to the issues of recycling, plastic pollution, and environmental impact.

Driven by a deeply held purpose of promoting the industry and putting major resources from his company behind it, he is a genuine

ambassador for the rotomolding industry worldwide.

In his acceptance speech, Coles said that he felt humbled to receive such a prestigious award and thanked ARM. He also paid tribute to fellow Hall of Famer Dr. Nick Henwood, with whom he co-founded Matrix Polymers 32 years ago, with the ambition to build a polymer supply company that was fully focused on Rotational Molding materials.

Coles then went on to say that Matrix has been successful and has been able to grow into a global supplier with 6 compounding and pulverizing plants around the world. This means as CEO he is fortunate to travel and have the opportunity to gain a unique insight into the Rotomolding industry in different parts of the world.

Coles said that most issues facing the industry are common

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Martin Coles and Dr. Paul Nugent

across the world, but the urgency to address these varied depending on the region.

A key concern he sees is the long-term sustainability of the Rotomolding process, with major challenges in several areas. The first one he highlighted was the very high energy consumption and the poor efficiency of the process, with typically only 5-8% of the energy used being converted into making the actual part. He mentioned the importance of developing technology, which significantly reduces the amount of energy needed. He said he is particularly excited to learn about work being done to develop lowcost solutions using electrically heated molds. This technology could also potentially revolutionize the process and open the use of different polymers.

Pollution and problems with

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plastic in the environment was the next issue Coles mentioned, which is a global issue. He implored the audience to sign up to Operation Clean Sweep. His message was that we all must take responsibly and “do our bit”.

Finally, Coles highlighted the issue of recycling and reuse of polymers in the Rotomolding sector. He said that there was big confusion about what we mean by recycled materials, with some molders believing that reprocessed production waste from scrap parts and off-cuts could be described as recycle.

Coles said that the average person in the street would most likely not view that as recycle, and they would expect that claims that parts made from recycled material would be produced from material that had previously lived a life as another product.

Coles suggested that ARM and the other Rotomolding associations around the world should get together and create some clear definitions and standards around recycled materials that the global Rotomolding industry could adhere to. He stated that all these issues around sustainability are not going to go away and will become bigger and more important. “It is incumbent on all of us in the industry to work to find solutions,” he said.

Coles ended by saying that despite all the industry’s challenges, Rotomolders are a very resourceful and enterprising breed of people. He is optimistic that the solutions that will be developed will help drive efficiency, increase the range of products made, and ensure the continued growth of the process. R

Temperature (°F)

Bubble Diffusion Rate(mm3/s)

Viscosity (Pa.s)

3.2

300

0 (no diffusion)

5450

3.2

340

0 (no diffusion)

3815

3.2

380

0.0191

2745

5

300

0 (no diffusion)

4230

5

340

0.0197

2865

5

380

0.2135

2000

8000

8 MFI

5000 4000

Diffusion Line

3000 2000 1000 0 280

300

320

340

360

380

400

Temperature (ºF)

Figure 6: Imaginary Bubble Diffusion Line

a diffusion rate for each material at a specific temperature was estimated and listed in Table 1.

The values for bubble diffusion in Table 1 were plotted against viscosity (see Figure 5). From the limited amount of data, it would appear that once the approximate zero shear rate of the polymer is below 3,000 Pa.s, then bubble diffusion will take place. As the viscosity decreases further (with additional heat), the rate of diffusion continues to increase, which helps to diminish the bubble size more quickly, which in turn improves the mechanical properties of the material.

.25

8000 7000

0.2

6000

Viscosity (Pa.s)

Bubble Diffusion Rate (mm3/s)

5 MFI

6000

Table 1: Bubble Diffusion Rates for Low MI Materials

correlated to what happens to bubbles that form during the molding process. Bubble measurement and analysis is possible by using a hot plate test to observe how rotomolding grades melt and form bubbles which diminish in size over time.

When the materials in Figure 3 were observed using a hot plate test, as illustrated in Figure 4, there were some interesting observations: • Materials with MIs above 8 g/10 mins formed a homogenous melt with no bubbles • Materials with MIs of 8 g/10 mins and below formed bubbles which gradually diminished in size • Bubble diffusion was accelerated by increasing the temperature of the polymer melt.

3.2 MFI

7000

Viscosity (Pa.s)

Melt Index (g/10 mins)

0.15

0.1

Transition point where bubble diffusion commences

0.05

5 MFI (Natural)

5000

5 MFI (Black)

4000 3000 2000 1000

0 1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

Viscosity (Pa.s)

0 280

300

320

340

360

380

400

Temperature (°F)

Figure 5: How Viscosity Affects Bubble Diffusion Rate

Figure 7: Zero Shear Viscosity for Black and Natural 5 MI Resin

By closely observing bubbles in the 3.2 and 5 MI materials during a series of hot plate tests and recording and measuring bubble size at specific temperatures, a rate at which bubbles diffuse can be calculated for each condition. Bubble sizes were initially measured, and the polymer held at a set temperature for a period of time before re-measuring the bubbles again. From these measurements

When considering the original viscosity data presented in Figure 3, an imaginary diffusion line (see Figure 6) can be added to highlight the processing temperature that must be reached in order for bubble diffusion to take place with some of the lower MI resins.

This provides the molder with some approximate mold internal air temperature targets that must be reached to allow diffusion to take place. There are several

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