Erik E. Erikson
Detroit Plastics Products Corporation
Inducted 1996
An important figure in automotive plastics, Erik Erikson (1924 – 1993) founded Detroit Plastic Products Corporation in 1949. He pioneered the conversion of many wood and metal automotive components to plastics. Born in Sweden, Erikson came to the United States in 1931. During World War II, he served with the U.S. Army in Europe; he later received an engineering degree from Wayne State University.
Under his direction, Detroit Plastic Products Corporation pioneered the conversion to plastics of components such as pillar garnish moldings and heater and air conditioning louvers. His company was also important as a custom injection molder of toys and housewares and as a blow molder of bottles for consumer packaging applications.
Erikson is credited with tooling and processing techniques that made precision injection molding possible in the complex multi-cavity mold before introducing computerized design tools and advanced process controls. The benefit for automakers took the form of part consolidation and other economies. The die-cast louver for a 1960s-model Dodge Dart, for example, cost six times more to produce than the plastic part Erikson designed to replace the heavier and more expensive metal version.
Detroit Plastic Products also specializes in molding scale-model cars and model kits. After selling Detroit Plastic Products in 1977, Erikson worked to upgrade the molding technology for other automotive molders. Shortly before he died in 1993, he developed a new process known as gas-assist injection molding, which is popular today.
An early activist in the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE), Erikson received SPE’s Outstanding Member award in 1976. He also received an award from the Michigan Department of Labor for
Detroit Plastic Products’ initiative to design and install machinery guards at a time when molding machine builders did not provide them.
Areas of Expertise:
Plastic processing, Plastic design