A Communication from the PLACE Div. of TAPPI
- Published: August 31, 2003, By David J. Bentley, Jr., Editor
Providing practical information to the converting & packaging industries.
PLACE Division Forges Ahead
by Jeff Wooster
When I became the Chairperson for the PLACE Division of TAPPI in August, 2003, I knew I was following very competent leaders who had guided the division to a place of prominence not only within the TAPPI organization but also in the fields of converting and packaging. In my attempts to continue the very successful efforts of these leaders, I want to make a special effort to listen to all the members of the PLACE Division. This is your division. What do you want the division to do? How can the division serve you? Please tell me your thoughts and your ideas no matter how simple or complex they may be. I invite you to telephone me at 1-979-238-9184 or send me email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. I will do everything possible to include your suggestions in our plans for the division.
An exciting thrust of emphasis for the PLACE Division in this coming year will be the reorganization and revitalization of the Flexible Packaging Committee. This group was once a very strong component of the division. By sponsoring many sessions at division conferences in the 1970s and 1980s and holding short courses and symposia during those decades, the Flexible Packaging Committee was the dominant source of technical information for everyone working in packaging and converting. By identifying new leaders for this group, I want to guarantee that the committee again achieves such prominence and attracts converters to our meetings. If you can help me and the other division officers in this renewal, please contact me by telephone or email as indicated above.
During the spring of 2004, the PLACE Division will hold a new short course called “Troubleshooting for Extrusion Coating, Film Extrusion, Coextrusion, and Flexible Packaging Converters.” By locating the course in St. Louis, Missouri, the meeting will be convenient to converters from around the globe. If you are a converter, you need to attend this meeting to learn how to troubleshoot within your organization. The information you receive will allow you to increase output, minimize waste, operate more economically, and generally work harder and smarter. Please watch this space for specific details or visit TAPPI.org.
I look forward during my term as division chairperson to cooperating with all the professionals in the converting and packaging industries that the PLACE Division serves. The PLACE Division needs you, and you need the PLACE Division. We can all work together to ensure success for ourselves and our employers through our support of the activities of the PLACE Division.
Division Names Winner
Gary D. Oliver is the winner of the 2003 TAPPI PLACE Division Technical Award with accompanying Sam Zweig Prize endowed through the generosity of Rohm and Haas Company. Oliver is Senior Corporate Scientist at Cloeren, Inc., in Orange, Texas. His professional fields of specialization are coextrusion, polymer processing, and process control.
A graduate of Central Michigan University, Oliver has worked for Dow Chemical USA as Senior Research Engineer and for Ball Corporation as Director of Engineering. He joined his present company in 1990. Besides his membership in TAPPI, Oliver is a Senior Member of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE). For the Extrusion Division of SPE, he is a Board Member and Awards Chair. He has authored numerous publications that have appeared in Convertec Pacific; Paper, Film & Foil CONVERTER; Plastics Engineering; Plastics Technology; and Modern Plastics. He is also a contributing author to Extrusion Troubleshooter Guide and Technicians Toolbox published by SPE and the Film Extrusion Manual published by TAPPI PRESS.
Throughout his many years of activity in the PLACE Division of TAPPI, Oliver has been involved as an instructor in short courses in film extrusion, extrusion coating, and coextrusion. He has also chaired many sessions at PLACE Division Conferences and presented numerous technical papers at these conferences. At the recently concluded 2003 TAPPI PLACE Conference and GLOBAL HOT MELT Symposium in Orlando, Florida, he chaired a session sponsored by the Film Extrusion Committee called “New Developments in Films.” At the same meeting, he presented a paper in the session on “Knowledge Management” sponsored by the Extrusion Coating Committee. The title of his paper was “Technical Presentations in PowerPoint — Getting The Point Across.”
At the TAPPI Ninth European Place Conference in Rome, Italy, in May, 2003, Oliver gave a paper on “Internally Deckled Coating Dies — Benefits and Applications.” In that presentation, he presented a history of internally deckled dies and discussed types of internally deckled dies. He noted that internally deckled extrusion coating dies have become a standard in the polymer coating industry. Many converters use the edge bead reduction feature to reduce or eliminate overcoating in many coating applications. Additional features such as external deckles used with internal deckle components have added to the operability of internally deckled dies while not detracting from the edge bead reduction feature. Internally deckled dies are more sophisticated and are therefore a precise piece of equipment requiring careful handling.
Oliver received the 2003 TAPPI PLACE Division Technical Award and Sam Zweig Prize during the awards presentation ceremony presented as part of the New Technology Showcase at the 2003 PLACE Conference and GLOBAL HOT MELT Symposium.
For information about the PLACE Division of TAPPI, access the TAPPI web page at www.TAPPI.org. To obtain the complete papers whose expanded summaries appear in this section, go to the TAPPI web site at www.TAPPI.org. Then click on “the PLACE” in the section designated Journals.
Telephone inquiries are welcome at the TAPPI Service Line by calling 1-800-332-8686 in the United States, 1-800-446-9431 in Canada, or +1-770-446-1400 in other countries. Send FAX to 1-770-446-6947. Address mail to TAPPI, Box 105113, Atlanta, GA, 30348-5113. Contact “the PLACE” editor using e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
