Share this on

The team driving DuPont's FR effort

By David Perry -- Furniture Today, January 25, 2004

RICHMOND, Va. — RICHMOND, Va.– Three DuPont employees based at the Spruance plant here are playing key roles in the company's introduction of fire-resistant mattress material.

Dr. Warren Knoff, research fellow, is leading DuPont's FR technology program. His team has developed products that they say perform well while maintaining comfort and affordability for mattresses in all price ranges. He was named the DuPont Scientist of the Month for October 2003 in recognition of his efforts.

Knoff, a 31-year DuPont employee, began working on the mattress project in January 2003. Earlier, he researched applications and markets for Kevlar fibers, invented a new, safer process for manufacturing Teflon fluoropolymer fibers, and investigated how the structure of a fiber affects its properties and performance.

Knoff, who has authored a dozen scientific papers and received seven patents during his tenure at DuPont, is now working on second- and third-generation FR products for DuPont.

John Dottore is corporate accounts manager in marketing and sales for DuPont's Advanced Fiber Systems business, based in Richmond. He joined DuPont in 1980 as a research engineer and spent the first seven years of his career in a variety of technical assignments working on DuPont's Kevlar, Nomex and Teflon fibers.

Dottore became a marketing specialist in 1987 and has served in a number of marketing and market segment leadership roles in Kevlar. In 1994, he became the business segment leader for life protection/Kevlar, where he led a multi-functional team to deliver improved protection in body armor to the law enforcement community. He received the DuPont Marketing Excellence Recognition award for his work in bringing Kevlar technology to body armor for correctional officers.

He assumed his current position in February 2003.

Clay Helpinstill is a technical service representative for the DuPont Advanced Fiber Systems business. He joined DuPont in October 2003 to work with the fire-resistant mattress program and to help manufacturers effectively use the DuPont FR barrier in their mattress products.

His work includes helping mattress producers translate the benefits of the DuPont technology in a way that is cost-effective and does not affect the manufacturing process or key mattress properties such as comfort and aesthetics.

Share this on

Safety drives DuPont

Jan 29, 2004

Also by this author

Also by David Perry

Featured Company

Brandwise Inc.

Brandwise serves a model - not just an industry - by integrating, automating, and optimizing the entire sales channel, from wholesale Suppliers to their Reps and the Retailers they service. In short, our software helps Reps and Suppliers sell more and create... more