The Polymers Center Celebrates 25 Years Of Supporting The Plastics Industry 

Since its beginning in 1998, The Polymers Center has supported, maintained, and encouraged companies in the polymers industry. This year, The Polymers Center is proud to celebrate its 25^th Anniversary.  

The Beginning Of The Polymers Center - Help For A Growing Industry
During the late 1980s, the Carolinas Section of the SPE, the Society of the Plastics Industry, and the American Plastics Council held a series of legislative receptions for the North Carolina state government in Raleigh. During these sessions it became plain that if the state were to be helpful to the growing plastics sector of their economy, they would need to invest in capital equipment and give such an institution a home. Paul Cowgill of NC IES, Joe Bennett of United Southern, and Charles Case, attorney, met and began the long process of organizing and funding what would become The Polymers Center, first termed the Polymers Extension Program or PEP. 

New Location, New Equipment, Top Level Expertise 
In the mid-1990s, IES hired Robert L. van Brederode, PhD, from the NC Department of Commerce, to lead the effort. Bob managed to get the institution incorporated in October 1998 as The Polymers Center of Excellence, Inc. and located it in the Cameron Research Center on the Charlotte, NC campus of UNCC. That solution worked badly, however, since the building was never designed to house processing machines like extruders, and nobody could explain where visitors were to park. Two years later, The Polymers Center moved across I-85 to its present location at 8900 Research Dr., where it occupied less than half of the building which it shared with the building’s owner, Saratoga Technologies. At the time, the center had a Theysohn 45mm twin screw and a Gala Model 6, both on consignment, and a 1” single screw extruder.

Staff in the Extrusion Department at the time consisted of two people, one of which was Tom McHouell; the same person that heads the Extrusion Department today. According to Tom, “We would run a couple trials a month initially for either Gala or outside industry partners. We spent more time writing reports than running machines. Our testing capabilities consisted of Tensile/Elongation Flex mod, Izod Impact, HDT Vicat, Shore A and Shore D Hardness, Melt Flow, QUV and DSC/TGA, and some microscopy capabilities as well.”

Expanding The Center’s Capabilities
In 2001, Dennis L. Hayford became Executive Director and brought with him a focus on industrial revenue and product development trials. One can trace the growth of PCE’s extrusion capabilities back to The Polymers Center earliest experimental trial, which ultimately led to a successful outcome and a happy customer. The unique business model, which is to run trials and developmental work only on condition of non-disclosure agreements, led to further experimental, and eventually larger-scale developmental, work. The center became ISO 9001:2000 certified in 2002. A 21mm lab compounder and a 50mm Maxx Leistritz with an Automatik pelletizer were purchased four years later. That same year, PCE purchased its building and the surrounding 20 acres of land and began renovating the building to support their needs.



Even With Impressive Growth, Our Goal Remains The Same
Director Hayford retired in 2014 and the next year, Philip S. Shoemaker, PhD, took over. Since that time the number of machines has tripled in all departments—leading to some infrastructure challenges. To accommodate those demands, the center will double the compounding development area in 2024. Despite its rapid growth, however, one thing has not changed. The mission of The Polymers Center to “support, maintain, and encourage” the polymers industry in the state of North Carolina remains.