On June 13th, six Eastman Chemical employees were invited to Strongwell to further expand Eastman’s knowledge and understanding of composites and to explore new potential opportunities for plastics within the pultrusion industry.

Eastman Chemical employees were given a manufacturing operations tour by David Ring (Manager of Government Affairs and Special Projects) and Glenn Barefoot (Vice President of Business Development & Marketing), who also explained how the pultrusion process works. During Eastman’s visit Strongwell stressed the importance of using vertical integration to support and maintain a dominant market presence. This strategy, coupled with market penetration, allows Strongwell to continue to develop new product applications frequently.  Discussions about how different resin systems behave with fiberglass played an integral role regarding potential plastic applications.

After the tour the Eastman employees sat down with Josh McCroskey (Process Engineer-Bristol) to address questions about resin systems, weathering thermosets, thermoplastics, pigmentation, and curing processes.  Strongwell would like to thank the following Eastman employees for visiting and consulting with us: Jeff Howell, Sr. Technologist; Kellie Quillen, Laboratory Technician; Dr. Jacob Ray, Development Scientist; Dr. Mark Treece, Principle Chemical Engineer; Kieran Smith, Global Industry Building and Construction;  Jeff Powell, Sr. Technical Service Representative.