As part of its 50th-anniversary celebration, the Association of Metallizers, Coaters and Laminators (AIMCAL) has established the AIMCAL Hall of Honor to recognize significant contributions to the group and the roll-to-roll (R2R) industry. The first five honorees includes AIMCAL’s first technical consultants and Fountain Hills resident, Dr. Edward D. Cohen.

Members of the first AIMCAL Hall of Honor class were recognized recently at the AIMCAL R2R USA and SPE Flexible Packaging Division FlexPackCon Virtual Conference. A perpetual plaque will be updated each year as honorees are inducted. It will be displayed at the AIMCAL office and future AIMCAL in-person events.

Members of the Class of 2020 were selected by the AIMCAL Board of Directors.

“It was difficult to limit the inaugural class to five because there are so many worthy candidates who have played such a vital role in AIMCAL’s growth and expanded range of offerings to members and the industry,” said Milan Moscaritolo, past president of AIMCAL.

Future honorees will be chosen by an awards committee, which will consider applications submitted by members.

As for the local honoree, Cohen was an active participant in AIMCAL technical conferences even before he retired from DuPont Central R&D (Wilmington, Del.) in 1998 and was named the association’s first technical consultant. As the technical consultant for web coating, he has helped AIMCAL deliver technical expertise via active involvement in the Technical Advisory Panel, recruitment of speakers, support of the “Ask AIMCAL” function of the website, and presentation of Converting School courses, pre-conference short courses and conference sessions.

Cohen has authored or contributed to various publications for AIMCAL and the industry. Industry works include “Coating & Drying Defects: Troubleshooting Operating Problems” and “Modern Coating and Drying Technology,” both co-written with Edgar B. Gutoff. For AIMCAL, he writes the “Coating Concepts” Q&A technical column for “Converting Quarterly” and moderates the online Web Coating Technical Topics Channel.

As president of Edward D. Cohen Consulting, Inc. in Fountain Hills, Cohen brings his clients 45-plus years of experience in all aspects of the web coating process. His background spans the coating and drying of thin films, coating process development and scale-up, polyester base development, film-defect mechanisms, defect characterization techniques, litigation support and professional development activities for scientists.

Before establishing his consulting practice, Cohen worked for many years at DuPont where he focused on coating research and manufacturing technology. He retired as a DuPont Fellow. He also has been active in the International Society of Coating Science and Technology (ISCST) and served as its founding president. Honors include ISCST’s John Tallmadge Award for Contributions to Coating Technology and the AIMCAL President’s Award.

Cohen holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Tufts University (Medford, Mont.) and a doctorate in Physical Chemistry from the University of Delaware (Newark, Del.).