SPE Names Robert Porsche Thermoformer of the Year
Long-time president and owner of General Plastics to receive award during September's SPE Thermoforming Conference.
The Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) Thermoforming Division has named Robert Porsche Thermoformer of the Year.
The award will be presented during the Division’s Thermoforming Awards Dinner, held in conjunction with the 26th SPE Thermoforming Conference. The conference will take place September 11-13, 2017 in Orlando, Fla, at the Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld Hotel. The Awards Dinner will be held on Tuesday, September 12.
Porsche began his thermoforming industry career working in sales for Profile Plastics in 1975. In 1987, he purchased General Plastics Inc., where he remains president and owner. At the time, General Plastics had six full-time employees housed in an 11,000 ft2 facility. Under Porsche’s leadership, General Plastics now has more than 75 full-time employees and recently expanded its facilities to a 93,000 ft2 building. Their modern facility contains a complete collection of the newest single-station, rotary and twin-sheeting formers with pressure-forming capabilities, as well as two three-axis and six five-axis CNC routers, and four of the most advanced fully robotic trimming machines.
Located in Milwaukee, General Plastics is an ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certified, full-service custom thermoformer. General Plastics also houses some of the largest forming equipment in the industry, allowing the company to address a diverse range of product demands. The company provides solutions for point of purchase and OEMs in bus, rail, truck, marine, office, lavatory, medical, health and wellness, gaming, arcade, food and beverage, construction, and machine guarding applications.
Last week, General Plastics was presented with the Wisconsin Manufacturer of the Year Award in the small business category, an honor that it also received in 2014. General Plastics has also been named as a finalist for the 2016 Plastics News Processor of the Year Award. The company has received numerous awards for its contributions to the SPE Thermoforming Division’s Annual Parts Competition over the years as well.
An active member of SPE, Porsche has served in many leadership roles as a Thermoforming Division Board Member where he chaired the Finance, Machinery, and Processing Committees in addition to two SPE Thermoforming Conferences. Porsche is a prior Division Outstanding Achievement Award Winner, and has served as a heavy gauge technical session presenter and moderator. He is also active in a variety of local Milwaukee-area business and civic nonprofit organizations.
Porsche graduated from Southern Illinois University with a B.S. in marketing and management.
“Under Bob Porsche’s leadership, General Plastics has grown from a small business to a thermoforming industry success story,” said Bret Joslyn, SPE Thermoforming Division Chair. “As a long-time member of the SPE Thermoforming Division’s Board of Directors, Bob’s leadership in a variety of roles has contributed greatly to the Division’s success.”
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