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The employees of BEKUM salute Gottfried Mehnert on his induction into the
prestigious Plastics Hall of Fame. This is an outstanding and well deserved
tribute to the founder of BEKUM Maschinenfabriken GmbH. For more than 48
years, Gottfried, as owner and BEKUM's Chief Executive Officer, has set the
standard for excellence and innovation in extrusion blow molding. His
accomplishments are legendary and include standard setting developments
such as:
- Calibration of bottle necks (1959)
- PVC blow molding for edible oils (1960's)
- High-output twin-station blow molding (1963)
- Coextrusion blow molding for six layers (1970's)
- Tiebarless mold closing system (1987)
- Also under his leadership, BEKUM developed the first continuous
coextrusion head for producting automotive fuel tanks (1991-92)
- More than 40 worldwide patents
Resulting from Gottfried’s creativity, BEKUM revolutionized the blow molding
industry in 1959, when it introduced BEKUM’s first blow molding machine at the
K 59 Plastics Exhibition in Düsseldorf, Germany. This machine demonstrated its
patented “inside-neck dimensioning system” (calibration from the top) with a
finished neck (the now famous and still industry standard neck calibration
system). After introduction, neck calibration became widely adopted within the
industry.
Gottfried’s passion for plastics processing machinery continued, and by the
early 1960’s, the first blow molding machines for producing PVC bottles used for
edible oils were introduced in France, Spain and Portugal. This solidified BEKUM’s
growing international reputation for “up to date” polymer processing know-how.
Once again, in 1963, Gottfried’s innovative efforts forced a quantum leap in the
growth of blow molding when at the Düsseldorf Plastic Exhibition, BEKUM
introduced its patented first twin-station blow molding machines, the HBD/HBV
series, which opened up the custom blow molding market for the economical high
output production of plastic blow molded bottles.
In the 1970’s, Gottfried, with his team developed a method of co-extruding six
layers, expanding the use of blow molded containers for the packaging of oxygen
sensitive food and beverage products. Later this six layer technology was further
developed by BEKUM to include the automotive plastic fuel tank.
The list of innovations goes on and on and on. Clearly, Gottfried Mehnert’s VISION
and his nearly six (6) decades of innovation and contributions to the plastics
industry are the reasons why he has been selected to the Plastics Hall of Fame.
And so to Gottfried and the other seven pioneers who has been inducted into
the Plastics Hall of Fame on June 19, 2006, we say CONGRATULATIONS and thank
you for making plastics so much a part of our lives, as well as our future.
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