Hydrocarbon Processing - June 2022 - 67

Industry Pioneers
polymers.10
Her other noteworthy contributions include a lowUnlike
the conventional melt condensation polymerizatemperature
(0°C-40˚C) condensation process for synthetic
fibers.10
tion process used in preparing nylon, which was typically done at
more than 200°C, the new lower-temperature polycondensation
processes employed very fast-reacting intermediates, making it
possible to prepare polymers that cannot be melted and only begin
to decompose at temperatures above 400°C.
Kwolek received over 17 U.S. patents, including one for the
spinning process for aramid fibers and five for the prototype
from which Kevlar was created in 1965, and won many awards
for her invention of Kevlar fiber technology.11
She was inducted
into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1994, received the
American Innovator Award in 1994, National Medal of Technology
in 1996, the Perkin Medal in 1997 and the Lemelson-MIT
Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999.11
In 2003, she was inducted
into the National Women's Hall of Fame.10
She retired in 1986 but continued to consult for DuPont and
served on the committees of the National Research Council and
the National Academy of Sciences.12
Kwolek continued to mentor women scientists and contributed
to science education for young children. One of Kwolek's
most cited papers, co-authored with Paul W. Morgan, is " The
Nylon Rope Trick " (Journal of Chemical Education, April 1959,
36:182-184).10
It describes a demonstration of condensation
polymerization in a beaker at atmospheric pressure and room
temperature-which is now a common demonstration in classrooms
across the nation. In 2013, Edwin Brit Wyckoff published
a childrens' book telling her story as: The Woman Who Invented
the Thread That Stops the Bullets: The Genius of Stephanie Kwolek.10
NATHANIEL WYETH
Nathaniel C. Wyeth was an American engineer
and inventor who is credited with
the invention of one of the most convenient
and readily recyclable plastic products
today-the plastic soda bottle. Wyeth
invented or co-invented about 25 products
and processes in plastics,
textile fibers,
electronic and mechanical systems.13
Nat Wyeth was born in Chadds Ford,
Pennsylvania, into a family of artists but displayed an early interest
in engineering by disassembling clocks and using their parts
to make model speedboats, cutting up tin cans and soldering the
pieces to make universal joints, and so on. His family recognized
the budding inventor's interest and encouraged him. He followed
his interests to choose the University of Pennsylvania for
its engineering program. During college, Wyeth built a 20-ft-long
hydroplane boat that could reach speeds of 50 mph, resting on
two pontoons and powered by a Ford V-8 engine.14
He joined
General Motors upon graduation but soon chanced upon an opportunity
to work as a field engineer for DuPont Corporation.
During his early days at DuPont, Wyeth excelled by inventing
a plug-proof valve for the production machine and was
transferred to the mechanical development lab. One of the first
machines he designed was for the automatic manufacture of dynamite
cartridges, which saved workers from exposure to poisonous
nitroglycerin powder. Another notable invention was a
RICHARD E. MORLEY
Richard Morley was an American mechanical
engineer and is considered one
of the 'fathers' of the programmable logic
controller (PLC). Morley designed
the first PLC with his team Mike Greenberh,
Jonas Landau and Tom Boissevain
and called it 084, as it was their 84th
project at Bedford Associates.16
The
introduction of PLCs kicked-off the
3rd industrial revolution, leading to the development of an entire
industry of digital control solutions.
In 1964, when Morley was unemployed and working in uninteresting
design jobs, he decided to pursue his interest in engineering
by starting his own consulting firm with his friend Geogre
Schwenk under the name Bedford Associates. Initially, they
worked with machine tool firms to help them transition into
solid-state manufacturing. Eventually, Morley realized that the
projects he worked on were similar and work became monotonous.
He decided to use his creativity and engineering acumen
to invent a controller that would automate industrial processes
with multiple input/output arrangements in real-time and replace
hard-wired relay controls.
During those times, manufacturing facilities were operated
by relay control systems. Control rooms were large with walls
full of relays, terminal blocks and wired connections. The main
Hydrocarbon Processing | JUNE 2022 67
machine bearing magnetized rollers, employed in the manufacture
of a non-woven polypropylene fabric, Typar®.13
By 1967, Wyeth started working on his best-known invention,
which began with his curiosity as to why plastic was not
used for carbonated beverage bottles.14
Wyeth was aware that
the fabrication process created weak spots in plastic containers,
and they were therefore incapable of withstanding carbonation
pressure. He took to hands-on experimentation to discover
ways to make stronger plastic containers. He knew that stretching
out nylon thread strengthened it by forcing its molecules to
align. His challenge was to stretch plastic such that its molecules
would align in two dimensions, rather than just one-biaxially.
He succeeded in doing this by creating a preform mold for the
bottle, which resembled a test tube with screw threads running
in a diamond criss-cross pattern, instead of single spiral.13
As the plastic was extruded through this mold, the molecules
aligned biaxially-just as Wyeth had intended. The criss-cross
flow lines reinforced themselves, creating a uniformly strong
product. He also replaced the polypropylene that was used
typically for plastic bottles with polyethylene-terephthalate
(PET), a polymer with superior elastic properties. He had created
a petrochemical product that was light, clear, resilient, safe
and eminently recyclable and laid the groundwork for future
process developments in preforming, extrusion and manufacture
of biaxially oriented polymer products.
Wyeth patented his process in 1973 and though recycling was
not an avid idea that that time, the first PET soda bottle went
into recycling soon in 1977.13
Today, recycled PET is widely
used as synthetic fiber with a major part of it used in making
polyester carpets: nearly half of the polyester carpet made in the
U.S. today come from recycled PET bottles.15
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