Stephen Sweig is Chief Engineer of Profile Plastics Corporation, Lake Bluff, IL. At Arrem Plastics, when Stephen began working inCS of Profile Plastics Corporation, Lake Bluff, IL.Since 1977, Stephen has held numerous technical and technical managerial positions within heavy-gauge thermoforming manufacturing companies, including a short period in lightgauge. He worked ten years for heavy-gauge thermoformer Arrem Plastics Corp., Addison, IL, and then one year for extruder and light-gauge thermoformer Concord Industries/ Rock-Tenn, Franklin Park, IL. For the last 15 years Stephen has worked for Profile Plastics Corp., a heavy-gauge thermoformer in Lake Bluff, IL. Stephen’s participation in the plastics industry began in 1974 when he joined Exxon Chemical Co., U.S.A., in their Extrudo Film Division in Lake Zurich, IL. This location manufactured blown and cast polyethylene film and compounded pre-colored polypropylene resin.

His background really does include several years as a rocket scientist. After completing his first Master’s Degree in 1967, Stephen joined Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM, as a Staff Engineer. At Sandia Labs he performed parametric tests of civilian high-altitude ballistic rockets and designed and field tested military ordnance. While at Sandia Labs he completed his second Master’s Degree and co-authored two technical publications on military ordnance.

Stephen has been an engineering force behind the technical development of the heavy-gauge pressure forming industry.

Many of the standard features available today, from a wide range of machinery and mold vendors, are a direct result of his creativity and ingenuity. Many of the pressure formed products that are common today are the direct descendants of products first produced under his guidance at Arrem Plastics and now Stephen began working in heavy-gauge thermoforming, pressure forming was already decades old.

We Deliver Parts Under Pressure Incorporated in 1960, Profile Plastics has always defined its niche in the custom thermoforming market as highly cosmetic, close tolerance parts. Profile Plastics is not just satisfied with its years of successful design implementation and cost saving production methods. Achieving a reputation as a creative problem solver, Profile Plastics is dedicated to continuing Research and Development of the processes that will benefit its customers. Profile Plastics specializes in custom molded, highly engineered plastic parts manufactured via the thermoforming processes of vacuum, pressure, and twin sheet forming. Most of their parts require close tolerance CNC trimming for a precise, consistent fit. To meet increasingly demanding quality control standards, and to exceed customers' expectations, in 1995 Profile Plastics moved into a new state-of-the art 100,000 square foot production facility. Their dedication to quality has been recognized by their peers - parts manufactured by Profile Plastics have won fifteen awards in nationwide parts competition in the last twelve years.

The industry’s products, molds and machines, however, were still much more “art” than “science.” Over the years, working with machine builders, mold builders, product designers and O.E.M.’s, Stephen has helped transform the heavygauge pressure forming industry into what it is today. Initially with AAA Equipment Co. and later with Brown Machine and Maac Corp., Stephen has been instrumental in the development of many of the innovations and features that are now taken for granted in modern thermoforming machines.

He was a persistent and strong proponent of 5-Axis CNC trimming of parts in its earliest years and he worked closely with Thermwood Corp. and later with MotionMaster, Inc. to develop low-cost, 5-Axis, toolchanger equipped machines specifically engineered for the thermoforming “job-shop” manufacturing environment … machines that would provide improved product quality and consistency while reducing dependency upon the artisanship of the individual operator. And, most importantly, machines that would dramatically reduce personnel injuries, a common problem in the heavy-gauge thermoforming industry, where hand trimming with powered tools is typical. Working with numerous Chicago area mold building shops, Stephen oversaw many of the advancements that Arrem and Profile made in pressure forming tooling design

Over the years, as Profile’s capabilities expanded, Stephen worked closely with product designers and O.E.M.’s to stretch the thermoformed product envelope and to get customers and potential customers thinking in terms of heavy-gauge thermoforming as a viable and competitive manufacturing process capable of meeting their needs. For example: “injection-molded” small-radius design and features; “injection-molded” quality cosmetics and “crispness”; formed-in textures from acidetched molds; molded-in color without painting; formed-in undercuts and assembly features; close tolerance trimmed features with cosmetically acceptable trim quality, etc. Stephen holds a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering in Fluid Mechanics from the University of New Mexico - Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, and an M.B.A. and B.S.M.E. from the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL. In 1986, while at Arrem Plastics, Stephen was granted U.S. Patent No. 4,584,157 for a “Method for Double-Side Thermoforming.”

Stephen is a member of A.S.M.E. and S.P.E. and has been an occasional presenter at past industrial conferences and an occasional expert witness in legal cases. Stephen is semi-retired and resides in Scottsdale, AZ. He is still active in the industry and commutes frequently to Profile Plastics’ facility in Illinois.

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