Thermoformer of the Year - 2005
Manfred Jacob, Jacob Kunststofftechnik GmbH

Manfred Jacob was born in Furth, Bavaria, Germany in 1942. His first contact with plastics came in the family kitchen as his father experimented with expanded polystyrene and started the first of many Jacob plastic enterprises business in the late 40s. Manfred went on to become a world-class gymnast but a back injury forced him off the German Olympic team. Unable to launch his own body into space, he joined the German Air Force to make the moves in a plane that he could no longer make in the gym.

When Manfred was mustered out of the air force he made an attempt to buy a well-established thermoforming business but could not come to terms with the owner. On his way home an almost chance encounter with a friend's widow left with a small packaging business led to his purchasing the equipment and Jacob Kunststofftechnik was born 1st January 1973.Manfred's goal: To be an expert in his chosen field.

The equipment consisted of two Illig UA 100 thermoforming machines, two horizontal band saws and one roller trim press. Total employment for this new company was 2.5 people with the main thermoforming machine operator being Manfred. So he set out to learn his chosen craft. I don't know about the band saws but the original Illig Thermoformer is still in Manfred's plant to this day.

Driven by this vision of becoming an expert, Manfred Jacob Kunststofftechnik has become one of the largest thermoforming companies in Europe.

The Jacob Group's capabilities now include:
• High pressure formed technical components
• Highly demanding Twin Sheet formed technical parts
• Thermoforming of continuous fiber advanced composite materials and the
  cutting technology associated with this process
• Traditional custom thermoforming business in producing quality thin gauge and large area thick gauge parts
• Decorative Insert Molded foils and parts with particularly complex trimming associated with this process

A short list of cars using Jacob Dash and Interior Trim components include: Ford Mondeo, Ford Focus, Mercedes SLK, PT Cruiser, Renault Clio, Rover 45, and Toyota Agenesis.

Manfred's inventions are many. One is cavity floor which uses thermoformed parts and self-leveling cement to create a solid floor with multiple track ways below for air conditioning, electrical wiring and plumbing. This development would allow the services to run anywhere on an entire floor plan and had become a standard in Europe. Currently, over one million square meters of Cavity Flooring are used in German office buildings alone. Cavity Floor is also used in buildings in Tokyo, London and in South America.

His twin sheet baking pan has replaced wooden trays dating back to the dark ages, and his Thermoformed composite auto bumper is on its way to being the standard for all of BMW cars. To list all his inventions and innovations in thermoforming would take more time and kill more trees than is ecologically responsible, but it's safe to say if you buy German thermoforming equipment, or are in the packaging industry, Manfred's 5 Thermoforming QUARTERLY ideas and enhancements are all around you. His parts regularly win awards in the annual thermoforming parts competition.

Manfred is unquestionably a visionary of some standing. He also has the unique ability and willingness to transmit the message and his inbred enthusiasm to all those around him, as any visitor to his plant can testify. He was also responsible for forming the consortium that supplied forming data in relationship to simulation programs on thousands of parts enabling T-Sim to refine their software and make it more accurate.

One of his visions was in approaching a number of local small, but highly technical design, tooling and plastics companies, and all experts in their fields, to consider a form of amalgamating together under one roof. This has had a dramatic effect on all involved. Not only has it formed a tremendously successful and professional group, but each individual company has profited by this close association, an example of synergy in its purest form. This organization was known as QIC and was established in 1995. Much in the way of new technology and product ideas have come out of this collaboration.

This philosophy of becoming stronger through association with other thermoformers and a willingness to share his knowledge also played a major part in Manfred's long involvement with the Thermoforming Division of the SPE and the ultimate birth of the highly successful European Thermoforming Division. How did this come about?

Manfred became closely associated with two like minded companies, one in Holland and another in the United Kingdom. Personal relationships flourished and they started to meet regularly to share ideas and set standards for processing within their companies. They also would regularly visit the U.S. for the annual thermoforming conferences.

Since those early days, Manfred has been an active participant in the annual thermoforming conferences. Many of us remember his presentation of the "State of the Thermoforming in Europe," given at the 1995 conference in Independence, Ohio where he made many of us aware of some very interesting alternatives to the way things were done in the U.S.

Knowing that most European producers would neve make it to the U.S. for conferences, the idea of a European thermoforming conference began to take shape. With help from the thermoforming division, a European "trial" conference was held in the spring of 1997 at the Manfred Jacob Kunststofftechnik facility, Wilhelmsdorf, Germany. It was here that the term "Spirit of Thermoforming" was first used.

Spurred on by the success of the event in Germany, a group of six European Thermoformers visited Chicago for a meeting with the SPE and the Thermoforming Division to discuss forming the European thermoforming division. The decision was made not only to form the division, but also to attempt to hold an International thermoforming conference in March 1998 in Ghent, Belgium. since then four more highly successful European conferences have been held and in the first SPE Division outside of the U.S. "The European Thermoforming Division of SPE" was founded.

At the last conference in Viareggio, Italy, Manfred was honored as the father of that division. He was awarded for his services to the ETD and to the European thermoforming industry in general.

Now semi retired, Manfred still spends time inventing, teaching his grandchildren English, as well as golfing, skiing and driving as close to mach speed as the autobahn allows.