People in Composites — August 2019

BigHead Bonding Fasteners Ltd.

BigHead Bonding Fasteners (Verwood, U.K.) announces the recent appointment of two additional engineers to its innovations team. The company began collaborating with Cranfield University earlier this year, and says that long-term investment in engineering expertise and composites knowledge is part of its growth strategy for meeting customer needs.

In the next year, among its projects the company plans to launch a new range of fasteners with application performance data, designed to remove a lot of the guesswork in fastener selection. The company is also working on a solution for speeding up and automating the bonding process, as well as a solution to integrate fasteners in the molding process itself, saving time and improving repeatability. In addition to its team expansion, BigHead has also been developing new production technology with its partner, Expert Automation and Tooling (Allesley, U.K.).

Interplastic Corp.

Steve Wetzel, vice president of sales, has announced that Marc Deschambault has joined the Interplastic Corp. (St. Paul, Minn., U.S.) team as the sales representative for Eastern Canada. Marc will focus on sales and account management in the Eastern Canada territory.

Marc comes to Interplastic Corp. with 30 years of experience working in the adhesives industry representing companies such as Tembec Chemical (now part of Rayonier Advanced Materials), Tri-Tex Co. and ARC Resins. These companies manufacture thermoset and thermoplastic materials sold into the composites industry.

Nippon Electric Glass Co. Ltd.

Nippon Electrical Glass (NEG, Shelby, N.C., U.S.) has announced that Kevin E. McDonald, president of NEG-US, will retire effective September 30, 2019, and that Hiroaki Nomura will take over his post.

McDonald has been president of NEG-US since NEG acquired the former PPG Fiber Glass business in September 2017. Previously, he had been the general manager of the U.S. and European operations of the business since 2009 and served as the global vice president of the fiberglass business for PPG until the NEG acquisition in 2017. In addition to working the last two years at NEG, McDonald was employed by PPG Industries Inc. for 37 years, primarily in the fiberglass business unit. McDonald also served as chairman of PFG from 2014-2016, twice served on the board of the American Composites Manufacturers Association (ACMA) and currently serves on the Board of Directors for Mafic S.A.

Nomura, who has accepted the position of president, has been an employee of NEG-US since 1983, beginning in the glass fiber division sales group and progressing in responsibility and serving as vice president, glass giber deputy group general manager since earlier this year.

Structural Composites

Scott Lewit, president of Structural Composites Inc. (Melbourne, Fla., U.S.) has been appointed to Congressman Bill Posey’s Business Advisory board.  Congressman Posey represents Florida’s 8th Congressional District.

“It is quite an honor to be selected for Congressman Posey’s Business Advisory Board,” Lewit says. “We are very fortunate here on the Space Coast of Florida to have a Congressman who understands the needs of business. I look forward to contributing to the board.”   

Scott Lewit is an advocate for small business who has been very active with the National Marine Manufacturers Association as well as an active player in the American Boating Congress for more than 15 years. Lewit is also the chair of the nonprofit Energy Florida and sits on the Space Coast EDC’s Innovation Council and Business Council. He also serves on the Executive Steering Committee for The Composites Consortium, which supports the Navy Center of Excellence in Composites.