Larry Jopko, who is the Principal of Stickum Consultancy LLC, has been involved in the Flexible Food and Industrial Packaging for over 40 years, employed by Lawson Mardon, Morton International, Rohm and Haas and Dow Chemical, amongst others. His expertise includes use and application of Industrial and Packaging Adhesives and Coatings, including those based on urethane, acrylic and polyester chemistry. His career was instrumental in the successful development and prototyping of new products and converting methods, suitability testing protocols, application methods for and commercial uses of products for many of the largest converters, providing technical, sales and marketing assistance. Larry has a 4-year B.Sc. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Waterloo (Ontario, Canada).
Specific Expertise
Product and Packaging Development:
- Design new products and structures for all food types as well as flexible industrial use applications.
- Collaboration with Research, Sales and Marketing to fulfil gaps in Market needs.
- New innovative products and structures for applications created for suppliers (converters) and brand owners.
- Marketing descriptive information to support product launches.
- Clear, understandable reporting of testing, data analysis, methods for fabrication and recommendations.
Testing and evaluation of structures:
- Pack studies, environmental simulated challenge testing of products and structures to accurately determine suitability or failure points.
- Analysis of defects, shortcomings and failures with improvement recommendations.
- Fabrication of structural variations to optimise for the intended application.
- Concise reporting of results and analysis with recommendations.
Problem solving of deficiencies and failures:
- For material suppliers, converters and brand owners and other supply chain participants.
- Auditing of the converting supply materials, handling procedures and fabrication methods for structures with summary findings and recommendations for improvements.
- Successful problem solving and deficiency resolution with recommended improvements in application methods, QA/QC testing, converting machinery issues and limitations, and packaging structures.
- Recommendations to minimize/eliminate errors and waste resulting in improvements in efficiencies and profitability.
Application:
- Design of and commissioning unique, world class coater/laminators for in-house and customer evaluations of new adhesives and coatings, prototyping, sample structure creation and validation of expected performance.
- Method creation, operational procedures and instruction for operational line personnel using the converting machinery and testing equipment.
- Numerous new product introductions to converters, including line trials, testing and evaluation, training and instruction to relevant personnel.
- Expert in lamination of adhesives and use of functional coatings.
- Extensive experience with rotogravure coating and printing, flexographic printing, and extrusion coating and extrusion lamination.
Teaching/mentoring and training:
- Training and instructional presentations for internal employer personnel, external converting customers, co-suppliers and brand owners.
- Creation of multi-day seminars on aspects of chemistry, converting equipment, application using converting equipment, in-process testing and relevant QC, structure analysis and defect determination.
- Guidance in food laws (FDA) for food packaging.
- Domestic and international experience (Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin and South America).
Professional Presentations:
- Provided seminars and/or presented papers with TAPPI (PLACE Division), Flexible Packaging Association, American Chemical Society, AIMCAL, NPIRI Technical Conference, Global Pouch Forum, Co-Supplier Seminars, Latin and South America Trade Seminars and Associations, and Asia Pacific Region Seminars and Trade Associations.
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