Frank H. Shaw
Shaw Insulator Company
Inducted 2002
Frank H. Shaw (1894 – 1972) was born and educated in New Jersey. He began work at the Shaw Insulator Company in Newark when his father, Henry M. Shaw, was president. After serving as vice president and general manager, the younger Shaw became company president in 1936.
Frank Shaw developed the first plastic radio tube base and made many design modifications to radio tubes and sockets. During and after the First World War, he was responsible for much of the design of molded insulation for electronic Signal Corps equipment.
Shaw was instrumental in developing the transfer molding process when, in 1926, he led a team of molding experts at the Shaw Insulation Company. The compression molding technologies at that time were unsuitable for insulating parts with thin walls and complex geometries.
In pot transfer molding, thermosetting material is heated and pressurized with a ram, which forces the transfer of the softened material (in a plastic state) from the pressure pot to a closed, heated mold cavity where the material cures. With this new molding technique, it was now possible to produce numerous delicate and complicated moldings, magneto housings for high-altitude aircraft, firing pins, shell fuses, gun stocks, and complex electrical parts for Army and Navy use. (from Modern Plastics Magazine, 20:11, 1956)
Shaw earned a military citation for his work on items such as the M-52 mortar fuse and firing pins during World War II. Shaw also received the John Wesley Hyatt Award in 1943 for achievements in the plastics industry. He was also a founding member of the Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI, now PLASTICS) in 1937.
Areas of Expertise:
Plastic processing, Management