Moderator Ken Weiss and his technical support and background manufacturing Twintex
Thu, Aug 19, 2010
Ken:
I was talking with John Menzel yesterday and he indicated that your technical background regarding Twintex production and application problem solving was outstanding. What exactly is your technical background with Twintex ?
Tags: background, experience, expertise, glass polypro, owens corning, technical support, Tooling, Twintex
I have a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and a Master of Science in Manufacturing Management. My Fiberglass career began at CertainTeed in Wichita Falls, TX which later became Saint Gobain Vetrotex America (SGVA) in April 1987. I started working on the Twintex Product line from the inception of planning to develop it in North America in March 1996 as a Product Line Engineer. Actual production didn’t start until January 1997. My responsibilities included specifying equipment and thoroughly understanding the process to industrialize the product. As the process was proven to be capable it was assigned its own product line and I was promoted to the Product Line Manager. As the Product Line Manager I also worked on customer issues and resolutions. After being promoted to management I still enjoyed working “hands on” with the equipment and processes.
I have worked closely with the CerBay weaving plant in Wichita Falls, TX that later became Saint Gobain Technical Fabrics (SGTF) to understand and improve the weaving characteristics of Twintex. I have also worked with the customers on the downstream processes of laminating and pultrusion.
In 2005 I wrote an AR to install a long fiber pellet pultrusion line in Wichita Falls. I was responsible to specify and install the equipment as well as the operation of the line once installation was complete. Production started on the pellet line in February 2006. Running this line in-house gave me valuable knowledge to understand and troubleshoot issues that pultrusion customers may be encountering.
Ken Weiss