Promoting the Use of Fiberglass Equipment
Lined with Corrosion Resistant Plastic
2020 John Kidd Award Winner - Arek Blazejewski
We are proud to announce the 2019 John Kidd Award winner L. Ted Hutton who first started welding thermoplastics in the early 1960’s. He has worked with thermoplastic fabrication, welding, resin manufacturing, processing, and specification for more than 50 years. He has been involved with ASME for more than 25 years including ASME RTP-1 Dual laminates and main committee members, ASME NPPS, and AWS (American Welding Society). Ted finished his B.S in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering in 1975 and worked professionally at Pentube Plastics (Dixon Industries) as an Chief Engineer, Liquid Nitrogen Processing (LNP) where he supervised compounding and coating manufacturing and sales, Allied Chemical as Technical Service and Marketing for Halar® ECTFE, Westlake Plastics as Director of Technical Services, and Arkema as a Senior Development Engineer for Kynar® PVDF. Today he is a consultant for Plasticwelding, LLC where he relies on his experience to support the thermoplastic industry.
The John Kidd award is presented annually to the individual whose performance and character best exhibits the pursuit of excellence and integrity in the field of Dual Laminates. Nominations are evaluated from fabricators, material suppliers, inventors, consultants and end users.
We are proud to announce that Hardin Wells takes top honors with this year’s award. His career in composites spans more than 32 years. Amazingly, all of that has been with a single firm. Not many of us can make that same claim. Hardin has long been recognized both inside Albemarle and in the composites industry at large as materials expert. Recently, Albemarle went one step further and recognized him with the enviable title of “Fellow” – one that is quite rare in the ranks of chemical engineers with his company.
Hardin has made a career of challenging the status quo and looking for opportunities to work with materials suppliers, fabricators and installers to improve technologies and thus grow the use of dual laminate materials in challenging industrial applications. He brings unique skills, precision and planning into his role at Albemarle, while maintaining a wonderful balance with his role as husband and father in his family life. Hardin Wells truly exemplifies the character and contributions embodied in the John Kidd award and we congratulate him on yet another achievement.
2017 John Kidd Award Winner: Steve Linnemann, RL Industries, Inc.
The John Kidd award is presented annually to the individual whose performance best exhibits the pursuit of excellence and integrity in the field of Dual Laminates. The individual can be a fabricator, material supplier, inventor, consultant, end user, welder, or anyone else who has been instrumental in the development fabrication, or promotion of Dual Laminates.