Names in the news: Polymer Solutions, EDI, Kuraray, Pallmann

has joined PSI as a gas chromatography chemist, a role involving data analysis, sample preparation, method development, method validation, report writing and instrument maintenance. Jeffery has a M.S. in Chemistry from Virginia Tech and a B.S. in Chemistry from Allegheny College. John Winebarger is a laboratory support specialist. His role supports the day-to-day functions of the various PSI labs, including work within the robust quality system. He graduated from Virginia Tech with a B.S. in Biochemistry and a B.A. in Chemistry. Megan Flora is a technical quality specialist. Her responsibilities are to support technical quality in the laboratories by working closely with the lab managers and project managers. Flora received her B.S. in Biology from Radford University. Judy Sink is a lab technician within the Applied Chemistry and Spectroscopy (ACS) Laboratory. Sink has 20 years experience in laboratory settings. She attended Manchester Community College in Connecticut and has also taken classes at New River Community College in Dublin, VA. 

EDI (Chippewa Falls, WI) has hired Peter A. Ferrara as sales manager for the U.S. Southeast. Based in Charleston, SC, Ferrara will provide customers in the region with sales service and project support for EDI's full range of flat-die and coating-head systems for sheet, film, extrusion coating, and fluid coating. Ferrara comes to EDI after serving as Southeast regional sales manager for German-based Hainbuch America LLC, a producer of tooling equipment. Previously he held managerial positions with manufacturers of equipment and systems for package production, extrusion processes, die casting, weight monitoring, and data collection.

Kuraray America Inc. will add a new business unit to its portfolio, the PVOH BU, which will include three different Kuraray product lines: PVOH, PVB and TROSIFOL PVB films. Bob Chvala will become the VP and general manager of the PVOH BU and Scott Landon will become the PVOH plant manager. Chvala joined Kuraray in April 2001 as the EVALCA Director of Automotive Sales. In 2007, he was promoted to VP Sales, EVAL BU, and in 2009 expanded his responsibilities to include General Manager of Resins & Chemicals. Scott Landon joined Kuraray in 2005 as a Sr. Principal Engineer at the EVALCA plant located in Pasadena, TX. In 2008, he was promoted to Production Manager, EVAL BU, responsible for the safe production of EVAL copolymers in the world's largest EVOH plant. Landon joined Kuraray from Rhodia where he was a Senior Engineer. Previous to Rhodia, Landon spent thirteen years with DuPont in key assignments. The new Kuraray PVOH plant is slated for completion in late 2014, with commercial operations to begin in early 2015.

Size reduction equipment supplier, Pallmann Group (Zweibrücken, Germany) has appointed Rolf Gren to the post of General Manager for Pallmann Industries North America. In addition to taking up his new post with immediate effect, Gren will also continue to hold the posts of Senior Executive VP Pallmann Group and President of Pallmann China.

The appointment of Rolf Gren underlines the importance Pallmann Group places on its activities in the North American market, where the company has been operating as Pallmann for more than 50 years. The company's head office in Clifton, NJ, coordinates all of Pallmann's activities in the North American market.