Robert Delong
INEOS Olefins
Inducted 2015
Bob Delong (1935 – ) began his plastics career at Hercules Powder in 1956, working in R&D on a then-new polymer, polypropylene. His long association with blow molding began shortly after that. Using a hand-operated Plax machine with a four oz. Boston round mold, he screened several rubbers as modifiers for improving low-temperature impact before the advent of copolymerization. The bottle drop height of the candidate alloys simulated a multi-axial impact. He developed the first commercial impact-resistant grades of Pro-Fax polypropylene. He discovered the copper poisoning of PP when he used copper-plated paper clips instead of nickel as hooks for oven aging studies. He was the first to document the warpage-inducing effects of the phtlalo blue pigments on HDPE.
In 1964, he blew thousands of experimental bottles at Celanese (now Ineos). He tested them for ESCR and top load, as the HDPE industry switched from butene to hexene as the comonomer. The superior ESCR performance of hexene-based copolymers enabled different MI and density grade parameters to be altered, many of which are still in use today. Promoted to the field service supervisor for blow molding; he combined resin development with customer service. Working closely with Uniloy, he became the technical leader at Celanese to commercialize the HDPE milk bottle, developing A60-70R, the industry-standard grade. High-shear thin wall blow molding required machine and tooling modifications to stay above the melt fracture range (as well as resin tweaking) as the bottle weights evolved downward from the original 80 grams to today’s 60. He worked on rheological definitions to separate the all-important handle diameter swell (flare) from weight swell and the slip/stick melt fracture flow ranges. He assisted customers with installation, start-ups, and personnel training, laying the framework for the week-long dairy training sessions sponsored by the industry today.
In 1971, he became VP and General Manager of Rainville’s injection blow machine program. He conceived and implemented the “One Source” turn-key concept, accepting responsibility for molds, machines, installation, and training. “Customers just wanted a hole in the ground; they didn’t want to buy a shovel, or even worse, a blade, handle, and a rivet to put it all together.” He was responsible for marketing, machine upgrades, tooling procurement, unit cavity proofing, production tool start-up, and training. He spoke at several SPE sections and RETECs, helped organize the first injection blow conference at NYU, and authored tooling articles in Modern Plastics and the SPE Mold Engineering Handbook. He took injection blow molding into many new applications. Examples included Polycarbonate nurser bottles (Gerber), Acrylonitrile beer bottles (Coors), and wide-mouth jars (Binney and Smith, Kemp Foods). They originally blew PET bottles under a secret Amoco contract seven years before the Wheaton patent.
The 1973 oil embargo put resin on allocation and decimated machinery sales. Thus, Bob joined Owens-Illinois in 1974. He commercialized their new extrusion stretch-blow molding process (O-I patent, licensed, built, and sold by Bekum). As manager of non-beverage PET engineering, he helped pioneer many applications, including liquor, mouthwash, and cooking oils. He installed the first Nissei non-beverage machine (for mouthwash) in the US at their Levis Park site.
Captive Plastics, a customer from his former Rainville days, wanted to grow and become a “national” supplier with a two-coast presence. In 1980, Bob was offered a chance to build and run a grass-roots plant somewhere “near Los Angeles.” He selected Redlands, CA, and established an eight-machine injection blow molding and decorating operation, which he managed for several years.
Returning to Solvay in 1989 and his love of customer service combined with resin development, he held the highest technical ranking of a senior engineering consultant. He traveled extensively for technical service, focusing on customer acquisition (correct resin, processability qualifications, compliance with internal and third-party performance specifications) and customer retention (application training, process troubleshooting, plant auditing, etc.). His expertise with blown auto gas tanks first fluorinated and then multi-layered, was well appreciated among their customers.
Bob has long been active in sharing his knowledge with the industry. For several years, he taught a full semester course in blow molding at Newark College of Engineering’s evening associates program. He has presented at the University of Akron’s Polymer lectures, NYU, American Plastics Council, AMA seminars, and annual Blowmolding conferences for many years. He was a frequent speaker at SPE seminars TOPCONS and RETECS. He has been published in Plastics Technology, Modern Plastics, Canadian Plastics, Modern Plastics Encyclopedia, and the SPE Mold Engineering Handbook.
He joined SPE in 1957 and has been a member of six different sections. He became a Senior member in 1969 and was elected a Fellow of the Society in 2002. He served on the Blowmolding Division’s board from 1995 to 2006. He was awarded their Lifetime Achievement award in 2004. Mr. Delong received his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Clarkson University in 1956. He completed graduate studies in law and marketing at the University of Kansas City and the University of Toledo.