L. D. Blackwell
Blackwell Plastics
Inducted 2017
Leonard D. (L.D.) Blackwell (1925 – 2015) was the Chief Executive Officer of Blackwell Plastics, a Custom Injection Molding and Extrusion Manufacturer in Houston. He was the son of L.A. Blackwell, who founded Blackwell Plastics in 1939, said to be the first injection molding company south of Chicago. The company was founded to manufacture the wooded “Slip Cork Insert” fishing tackle he invented. The senior Blackwell was determined to make the tackle from plastic and worked with L.D. to make this idea a reality.
Using limited and relatively crude machining equipment, the Blackwells designed and built their first injection molding machine to produce slip cork inserts from plastic material. They molded about 400 slip cork inserts daily from DuPont’s Plastacele and then Cellulose Acetate Butyrate. This was more than a tenfold increase in production compared to the wooden version. Shortly after the company started operations, the Blackwells were approached by a Houston oil company in 1940 to produce plastic models of a new rock drill bit. They built four very complex injection molds and produced the parts successfully. Blackwell Plastics was now in the custom injection molding business.
L.D. served two years in the military during WWII as a Lieutenant in the Air Force. The war years brought much business to Blackwell Plastics, including molded plastic gun parts and molded plastic aircraft parts. L.A. Blackwell had built five more homemade injection molding machines to handle the expanding business. Following the war, L.D. returned home to study mechanical engineering at the University of Houston and take over the family business operation, where L.D., his brother Bob, and his mother Irene began to introduce commercial injection molding equipment following his father’s death in 1945. Bob Blackwell left the company in 1947 to join a major chemical firm, returning to the company ten years later.
During this time, L.D. oversaw both sales and manufacturing. He grew the company to become one of the largest custom injection molding and extrusion manufacturers in the southern United States dedicated to processing engineering thermoplastics with extensive tool and die capability. The company specializes in molding for the oil and gas, medical, consumer, aerospace, and new start-up industries. Notable products L.D. helped develop and manufacture included the weed-eater™, NASA mission products, a bypass pump for open heart surgery, and other surgical support products.
Areas of Expertise:
Plastics processing