Detroit, Michigan - Irvin Poston, who had a long and successful career at General Motors Corp. and was responsible for a number of automotive plastics "firsts", is to be awarded the SPE Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual SPE Automotive Innovation Awards Gala on 12 Nov at Burton Manor in Livonia, Michigan, a statement from the Society of Plastics Engineers said recently.
Irv Poston, who was head of Plastics Development at GM's Tech Center, retired in 1997 after 42 years with GM. His team was heavily involved in developing sheet-moulding compound (SMC) and reaction injection moulding (RIM) equipment, processes, and applications for the automaker, but also worked with injection-moulded thermoplastics and thermosets, the statement said.
Poston was also personally involved in the original use of injection-moulded polypropylene fender liner/skirts (Oldsmobile), RIM "friendly" fenders (SportOmega), SMC tailgates (Fisher Body), polyurethane bumpers (for a fleet of taxi cabs -despite insistence by the design staff that chrome bumpers would never be replaced on production cars), the all-composite-bodied Fiero sports car, and RIM and SMC body panels (APV minivan).
For more information about the SPE Innovation Awards Competition & Gala, visit the SPE Automotive Division's website at: www.speautomotive.com/inno.htm (RD)
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