Dr. Chris Rauwendaal
REE, Inc.
Inducted 2024
Dr. Chris Rauwendaal (1950 – ) has worked in plastic extrusion for over fifty years. In addition to inventing new technologies and processes that significantly advanced the industry, Rauwendaal has taught seminars on extrusion and related topics to thousands of people in the US and 22 other countries worldwide. He also made significant contributions to extrusion theory.
Rauwendaal earned his postgraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering at Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands, in 1973 and completed his doctorate in Mechanical Engineering at Twente University of Technology in 1988.
He became a development engineer with American Enka Company in North Carolina, the largest rayon fiber manufacturer in the US. There he received the President’s Award for development of a new patented screw design. Rauwendaal developed several patented screw designs, mixing elements, and extruder components and designed thousands of extruder screws for extrusion and injection molding.
In 1977, Rauwendaal became Manager of Process Engineering in Corporate R&D with Raychem Corporation in California. He was responsible for all sheet extrusion, wire coating, tubing extrusion, blown film extrusion, and coextrusion activities. He was also an internal consultant on process-related problems and activities.
Rauwendaal published over 300 papers, books, video training courses, interactive training courses, and book chapters. First published in 1986, his “Polymer Extrusion” book is one of the most successful and widely used books on extrusion.
Rauwendaal is President of REE, Inc., where he provides design services, problem-solving, process and material analysis, custom-designed extrusion equipment, and training for the polymer processing industry. REE also provides expert witness services.
Rauwendaal developed a new theory that allows die designers to predict shape changes in extrusion on non-circular products. This had been a troublesome problem for die designers for decades. He also invented the patent-pending super degassing screw (SDS), a major development in extrusion technology. Rauwendaal holds nine other patents and is a Society of Plastics Engineers fellow.