OMNOVA Solutions (formerly GenCorp), Fairlawn, Ohio, presented its Chairman’s Award to Dr. Nick Triantafillopoulos, manager of Advanced Devel-opment for OMNOVA’s Performance Chemicals business. The Chairman’s Award, also called The Eagle of Excellence, recognizes exceptional performance by employees who make a significant and lasting contribution to the company’s long-term objectives.
Triantafillopoulos was recognized for his outstanding technical accomplishments, which have contributed to the growth of Performance Chemicals and have helped position it for success as a strong business within the company. (Performance Chem-icals and OMNOVA’s Decorative & Building Products business were spun off of GenCorp effective October 1, 1999.)
“In a year where organic growth has been a top priority for us, Dr. Triantafillopoulos exemplifies the leadership, expertise and inquisitive mind so necessary for generating and implementing exciting new technologies that will continuously differentiate our customers in the marketplace,” said John Yasinsky, OMNOVA Solu-tions chairman and chief executive officer.
Triantafillopoulos manages the Performance Chemicals Advanced Development team at OMNOVA, which incorporates polymer synthesis and polymer engineering skills in developing new products. His technical expertise is in applied rheology and non-Newtonian fluid processing, with ex-perience in high-shear roll and blade-coating operations. He helps customers with formulating coatings, and identifying and eliminating thin-film defects, particularly in high-speed applications. He frequently lectures in academia, short courses and symposia on interpretation and applications of rheology to solve industrial problems.
The group that Triantafillopoulos manages has developed and commercialized a range of latices for water-based adhesive applications. Emulsion polymers have been created for a variety of adhesion applications, including rubber-to-fibers, floor tile, flame retardant, pressure sensitive and carpet backing. Most of these products are customized styrene-butadiene copolymers and acrylics.
New innovations in the past few years involve the development of “hybrid” latices based on styrene acrylic/styrene-butadiene and poly-vinyl acetate/styrene-butadiene polymers. Each particle of these hybrids represents an engineered composite latex, with areas of a secondary copolymer in a terrain rich in a primary copolymer.
Triantafillopoulos is a renowned expert in his field. Earlier this year, he received the prestigious 1999 Charles W. Engelhard Award from his peers at the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry (TAPPI).
