WIRE NEWS WN February 2018 | Page 9

Steve Maguire, Prolific Innovator and Founder of Maguire Products, is Elected to the Plastics Hall of Fame Steve Maguire, the founder of Maguire Products, Inc. whose many inventions have benefited plastics processors around the world, has been elected to the Plastics Hall of Fame. His induction will take place at a ceremony held this May in Orlando, FL during NPE2018. After entering the plastics industry in the early 1970s as an engineer with an injection molding company, Mr. Maguire started Maguire Products in 1977. Using the attic of his house, he produced and marketed his first invention, a peristaltic pump for dispensing liquid colors. Since then, as the company’s owner, president, and chief designer, he has generated a steady stream of innovations, including the first gravimetric weigh scale blender, the first use of microprocessor control for plastics auxiliary equipment, the first vacuum resin dryer for plastics processors, and many others. Thus far he is the holder of 41 patents, and another 37 are applied for or pending. Based in Aston, PA, U.S.A., his company now supplies plastics processors around the world and has subsidiary headquarters in Canada, Singapore, China, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates. Among the best known innovations of Steve Maguire is the Maguire® Weigh Scale Blender, introduced in 1989 as the first affordable and easy to operate system for precisely controlling the composition of a raw material blend. In 2017, Maguire Products shipped its 50,000th blender. “Steve Maguire has transformed plastics raw material handling technology and revolutionized the way processors control the preparation and consumption of molding and extrusion compounds,” said Frank Kavanagh, vice president of sales and marketing. “As a self- Steve Maguire reliant entrepreneur in the classic American vein, he has drawn on his own early experience as a plastics processor to devise systems that address the practical needs and preferences of processors, with an emphasis on simplicity, reliability, and ease of use.  More often than not, this has required completely re-thinking the way a particular processing system might operate.” Some years ago, Mr. Maguire cited his early experience as a plastics processor in a letter to customers: “Before I got started in this business, I worked in both extrusion and injection molding operations.  I worked on the floor, not in the office.  It was my job to keep everything running, not just while I was there, but through the second and third shifts as well.  Simplicity, reliability, serviceability, and ease of operation became the qualities most important to me. What I learned back then is apparent in all our designs today.” At age 74, Steve Maguire continues to work on developing new auxiliary equipment systems.  His latest major invention, a new type of vacuum resin dryer for use by plastics processors, promises to have an effect on the industry as revolutionary as that of the Weigh Scale Blender. His three sons have all joined him in his business: Stephen Maguire, vice president of manufacturing; Eric Maguire, operations manager; and Paul Maguire, president of Maguire affiliate Riverdale Global. . www.maguire.com WIRE NEWS February 2018 9