AIMCAL Hall of Honor Inducts First Five Members
- Published: October 20, 2020
As part of its 50th-anniversary celebration, the Association of International Metallizers, Coaters and Laminators (AIMCAL) has established the AIMCAL Hall of Honor to recognize significant contributions to the group and the roll-to-roll industry. The first five honorees are Dr. Charles A. Bishop, a long-time member of AIMCAL’s Technical Advisory Committee; AIMCAL’s first two technical consultants, Dr. Edward D. Cohen and Dr. Eldridge M. Mount III; Chuck Larsen, AIMCAL president from 1995-1996 and chief executive officer of Celplast Metallized Products, Ltd. (Toronto, ON, Canada); and Past Executive Director Craig Sheppard.
Members of the first AIMCAL Hall of Honor class were recognized on the opening day of the AIMCAL R2R USA and SPE Flexible Packaging Division FlexPackCon® Virtual Conference (Oct. 19-23, 2020). A perpetual plaque will be updated each year as honorees are inducted. It will be displayed at the AIMCAL office and AIMCAL events.
Members of the class of 2020 were selected by the AIMCAL Board of Directors. “It was difficult to limit the inaugural class to five because there are so many worthy candidates who have played such a vital role in AIMCAL’s growth and expanded range of offerings to members and the industry,” says Milan Moscaritolo, past president of AIMCAL.
Future honorees will be chosen by an awards committee, which will consider applications submitted by members. Prospective honorees must have participated in AIMCAL for a minimum of 10 years and been employed in the roll-to-roll industry for at least 15 years. Application forms will be available on the AIMCAL Website, www.aimcal.org, later this year. The number of candidates inducted each year is expected to vary.
Hall of Honor Inductee Bios
Dr. Charles A. Bishop, C.Eng., MIMMM, Technical Advisory Panel Member
Bishop has been involved in vacuum coating for more than 25 years. He started C.A.Bishop Consulting Ltd. (Loughborough, U.K.) in 1998 to offer expertise in vacuum engineering, system and process design, troubleshooting, and training.
AIMCAL has played a significant role in his professional journey. He says, “At the start of my career, AIMCAL provided a quick route to expanding my contacts list and exposure to alternative technologies to the ones I was working on. When I moved into consulting, AIMCAL through the technical conferences enabled me to present papers that helped me bring my company name to a wide range of potential clients.”
Bishop also has served as an AIMCAL Converting School instructor and awards program judge. He co-edited the AIMCAL Metallizing Technical Reference and contributes to Converting Quarterly where he writes the “Vacuum Verbiage” Q&A technical column and moderates the online Vacuum Web Coating Technical Channel.
Bishop left school at 16 to serve a mechanical engineering apprenticeship, qualifying as a toolmaker. During the apprenticeship, he attended the local technical college and obtained an ONC & HNC in Mechanical Engineering. Despite opposition from his employers, after completing his apprenticeship, he resigned to go to university where he took a degree in Materials Engineering and a diploma in Industrial Studies. His final year project brought his first experience in vacuum processing as he helped develop an implant for prosthetic surgery. For his master and doctoral degrees, he transferred to the Physics Department where he researched vacuum processing and was part of a team researching heat mirror windows onto polymer, which won national and international BP Energy Conservation Awards in 1992.
After university Bishop was recruited by ICI where he developed polyester products and explored coating technologies for other business areas.
Dr. Charles A. Bishop
Dr. Edward D. Cohen, Technical Consultant
Cohen was an active participant in AIMCAL technical conferences even before he retired from DuPont Central R&D (Wilmington, DE) in 1998 and was named the association’s first technical consultant. As the technical consultant for web coating, he has helped AIMCAL deliver technical expertise via active involvement in the Technical Advisory Panel, recruitment of speakers, support of the Ask AIMCAL function of the website, and presentation of Converting School courses, pre-conference short courses, and conference sessions.
He has authored or contributed to various publications for AIMCAL and the industry. Industry works include Coating & Drying Defects: Troubleshooting Operating Problems and Modern Coating and Drying Technology, both co-written with Edgar B. Gutoff. For AIMCAL, he writes the “Coating Concepts” Q&A technical column for Converting Quarterly and moderates the online Web Coating Technical Topics Channel.
As president of Edward D. Cohen Consulting, Inc. (Fountain Hills, AZ), he brings his clients 45+ years of experience in all aspects of the web coating process. His background spans the coating and drying of thin films, coating process development and scale-up, polyester base development, film-defect mechanisms, defect characterization techniques, litigation support, and professional development activities for scientists.
Before establishing his consulting practice, Cohen worked for many years at DuPont where he focused on coating research and manufacturing technology. He retired as a DuPont Fellow. He also has been active in the International Society of Coating Science and Technology (ISCST) and served as its founding president. Honors include ISCST’s John Tallmadge Award for Contributions to Coating Technology and the AIMCAL President’s Award.
He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Tufts University (Medford, MA) and a doctorate in Physical Chemistry from the University of Delaware (Newark, DE).
Dr. Edward D. Cohen
Chuck Larsen, AIMCAL President 1995-1996
Chuck Larsen, co-founder and chief executive officer of Celplast Metallized Products, Ltd. (CMP, Toronto, ON, Canada), has been active in AIMCAL for many years. He has served on the board, presented at AIMCAL conferences, and supported the AIMCAL Awards program where CMP has earned recognition for products and technology.
Larsen recalls, “CMP joined AIMCAL as soon as we got our first metallizer running. As a new company. . . . with a single production unit in Canada, we were ignored by suppliers. AIMCAL provided a venue to meet prospective suppliers, and we actively negotiated . . . contracts at the annual meetings during the 80s. Management training and networking became more important in the 90s as we expanded and matured. Personally, I have developed some great friendships around the world that will outlast my active participation in AIMCAL.”
He adds, “Board membership was a gratifying experience helping take an organization which was losing membership and money to one that has undergone great global success and growth. My most satisfying accomplishment while vice president and program chairman was working with Bob Burgess (president 1998-2000) to move a failing technical program with unsustainable attendance into the successful format it maintains today.”
A native of Pennsylvania and alumnus of Middlebury College (Middlebury, VT) and Harvard Business School (Boston, MA), Larsen joined Celanese after graduation and sold Celanar polyester film. Frustrated with corporate bureaucracy, he departed in 1976 and started Celplast Limited (Toronto, ON), a distributor of film and sheet. By 1983, Bill Hellings came aboard and CMP was born and grew. “We . . . are currently transitioning CMP to an employee group led by Dante Ferrari. I’m grateful that I have the opportunity to mentor a younger, dynamic team that will be continuing to expand Celplast’s vision.”
Chuck Larsen
Dr. Eldridge M. Mount III
Mount is an independent consultant with more than 40 years of industrial experience. EMMOUNT Technologies, LLC (Canandaigua, NY), offers consulting and technical training in film orientation, barrier technologies, coextrusion, and extrusion and also measures polymer melt viscosity with a capillary rheometer. A leading developer of metallized films for barrier applications, Mount is named on numerous patents.
Mount has served AIMCAL as a technical consultant for metallizing since 2001, been instrumental in updates of the Metallizing Technical Reference, and played key roles in AIMCAL Summer School and technical conferences. He also writes the “Substrate Secrets” Q&A column and moderates the “Substrates” Technical Topics online channel for Converting Quarterly. He says, “AIMCAL has been a primary source of recognition for me and my company as an independent consultant and as a source of customer contacts. In addition, my wife and I developed many significant and long-lasting friendships with people we met at AIMCAL events.”
Prior to starting his firm, Mount worked for ExxonMobil Chemical and ICI Americas Film Divisions. He managed the intellectual property for Mobil Chemical Films Division and has courtroom experience as an expert witness. A frequent contributor to Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE), ANTEC, and TAPPI conferences, he is a past vice president, Fellow and Honored Service Member of SPE and a member of the SPE Extrusion Division Board of Directors. He also has made many contributions to the extrusion and oriented film literature. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from West Chester (PA) University and master and doctorate degrees in Chemical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, NY) where his thesis focused on the extrusion melting mechanism of polymers in plasticating extruders.
Dr. Eldridge M. Mount III
Craig Sheppard, Past Executive Director, AIMCAL
Sheppard retired at the end of 2019 after 21 years at the helm of AIMCAL. During that time, the group experienced growth in membership, international scope, and reputation. High points during his tenure include merging with CEMA in April 2003, changing the I in AIMCAL from Industrial to International on Jan. 1, 2011, launching Converting School (formerly Summer School) and expanding it internationally and online, and extending the R2R Conference USA (formerly the Fall Technical Conference) to include more tracks as well as editions in Europe and Asia.
Other accomplishments included stabilizing AIMCAL’s finances, expanding the staff, and increasing AIMCAL’s technical stature. AIMCAL’s reputation as a valuable technical resource was supported by the recruitment of technical consultants, formation of a Technical Advisory Panel, and publication of resources such as the Metallizing Technical Reference. During his tenure, AIMCAL also launched the AIMCAL SourceBook, Converting Quarterly, technology-specific blogs, technical webinars, and AIMCAL TV.
Sheppard also worked hard to establish relationships with related associations and organizations, present high-quality events, support members at trade shows here and abroad, encourage strategic planning, and continuously improve the AIMCAL website. He says, “AIMCAL has grown in importance by creating opportunity for the industry in terms of business, training, and networking.”
Prior to becoming executive director, Sheppard worked for Rexam Custom (Matthews, NC), an AIMCAL member, where he oversaw new business development and global communications. An active participant in AIMCAL activities, he served on the Membership Committee where he stressed the importance of increasing the value members received.
A Pennsylvania native, he has an undergraduate degree in Market Research from Ball State University (Muncie, IN) and a Master in Business Administration from Youngstown (Ohio) State University where he also taught night classes in marketing and advertising.
Craig Sheppard
