TECHNICAL STAFF

Daniel C. Fuccella -- PCE Project Manager
Daniel C. Fuccella, PE has accumulated over 30 years of plastics design, materials, and processing experience. After joining Dow Chemical Company’s Plastics Department in 1967, Dan devoted the next 23 years contributing to the growth of Thermofil, Inc., a specialty plastics provider, managing quality, applications development, process engineering, marketing, and serving as vice president of plastics materials research and development. Dan has assisted the Polymers Center of Excellence with client projects and as an instructor since its inception. Dan is also the founder and president of Applied Technologies, Inc., a product design and engineering firm located in Cary, North Carolina. Dan is a past-president of the Piedmont-Coastal Section of the Society of Plastics Engineers, and an active member of Society of Manufacturing Engineers.

PCE Phone: 704-602-4108; Mobile Phone: 919-349-5911; Fax: 704-602-4114

Thomas P. McHouell -- Extrusion Department Manager
Tom McHouell joined the Polymers Center in July of 1999. He has a BS in Electrical Engineering from NC State University and worked for seven years in Corporate Research and Development for Collins & Aikman Products Company, a global supplier of automotive interior trim components.
His background includes sheet extrusion, computerized rheometry, acoustic testing, and scanning electron microscopy/elemental analysis.

PCE Phone: 704-602-4106: Fax: 704-602-4114

Joe Henz -- Training Department Manager
Joe Henz has over twenty years in the plastics industry. A graduate of GE’s Plastics Technology Program, he holds a MS degree in Chemical Engineering and has broad experience in plastics, including polymer processing, material testing, part and mold design, and mold flow analysis.

Joe’s teaching experience includes instructor roles at GE Plastics’ Industry Seminars and most recently at the Eastern North Carolina Plastics Technology Center.
 
Joe can be reached at 704-602-4125.

Dan McWilliams -- Materials Engineer
Dan has over 38 years of experience in the plastics industry. After receiving his M Eng degree in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University he joined The Dow Chemical Company, where he spent the next 28 years in the areas of process design, manufacturing support, lab and pilot scale research and product technical support. He held a number of supervisory and management positions within the foams and films R&D areas before retiring after his last assignment as a development project manager.

Dan moved to Charlotte, NC in 1998 to help found Carolina Compounding, Inc. as its President. He joined the staff of PCE in late 2006, after having been a consultant and extrusion instructor with PCE for several years.

PCE Phone: 704-602-4118; Fax: 704-602-4114