Irvin I. Rubin
Robinson Plastic Corporation
Inducted 1994
Irvin I. Rubin was an American chemist, engineer, businessman, author, and educator who developed many technical processes in the plastics industry, especially in injection molding.
Rubin received his B.S. in chemistry from City College of New York in 1938 and worked towards a Master’s at Brooklyn College. His career in plastics began in 1940 as technical director of Robinson Plastics Corporation in New York City. He became chief shift chemist at Montrose Chemical Company in 1942, producing tri-cresyl phosphate plasticizer for PVC cable for the war effort. He was then plant manager for Columbia Plastic Products, which fabricated acrylic products beginning in 1945.
In 1946, Rubin joined Robinson Plastic Corporation. In the early 1960s, Irvin started Irvin I. Rubin Plastics Corporation, a manufacturer of injection molded plastics medical devices and equipment, where he served as president and CEO.
Rubin’s technical contributions to the industry include the development of vacuum metalizing for polystyrene as a commercial process for industrial lamp parts. In the late 1960s, he assisted in the production of the first injection-molded thoracic drainage system — a process that is now standard.
Rubin was the author of many technical articles on injection molding. He wrote his first book, “Theory and Practice of Injection Molds and Molding,” published in 1972. 1990, he edited the “Handbook of Plastics Materials and Technology”. He wrote the chapter on injection molds and molding in the Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI now PLASTICS) “Plastics Engineering Handbook.”
He was a Fellow of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) and a short course/seminar instructor for SPE on injection molding. He served in other capacities for SPE, including as president of the New York SPE Section, Vice-chairman of the 1955 ANTEC, Chairman of the Publications Committee, and Chairman of the I.T. Quarnstrom Foundation. He also served as president of the Plastics Molders Guild and was a consultant to the New York City Board of Education.
Areas of Expertise:
Plastic processing, Plastics machinery, Management