Research & Development

Foam Supplies, Inc.'s Research and Development is led by our expert and extensive team of onsite Technical Chemists. To learn more about this team, read the biographies below!

Mark Schulte

Mark Schulte is a graduate University of Minnesota-Duluth where he earned both his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry, and later his Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education.

In his early career, he spent time teaching Chemistry in public schools. Later he worked at DuPont as a chemist and at Brenmonk Chemical working with polyurethanes. Mr. Schulte has been at Foam Supplies as a chemist experimenting with polyurethanes for twenty three years, and has seen many accomplishments during his tenure.

While at Foam Supplies, he has been on the chemist team that was first in the world with Freon-22 technology for blowing foams. Mr. Schulte has also contributed to the development of the new ecomate® technology.

John Murphy

John Murphy attended the University of Toledo and earned his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry. He later attended West Chester State University and earned his Masters in Chemistry.

Mr. Murphy has worked for a number of companies in the polyurethane business, including MacDonald-Douglas, Arkema, Arco Chemical, Tuffkote, UCSC, and CPR Upjohn. At Arkema, he was on the team that introduced HCFC-141b to the polyurethane industry.  At Upjohn he worked on the foam used for the external tanks of the shuttle crafts, as well as foam used for Bay Area Rapid Transit and Washington, DC transit cars. His past experience with rigid spray polyurethanes has been valuable to his work at Foam Supplies.  He was the first person to pass the White House Test and opened up the urethane market permitting rigid PU to be put directly to steel decks.

Mr. Murphy is currently working on ecomate® expansion.

David Modray

David Modray is a graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia with a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering. He has been at Foam Supplies, Inc. for the past thirteen years since graduating. Originally working with Quality Control, he moved to Formulating eleven years ago. The past six years have greatly consisted of research.

Mr. Modray has formulated three UL Certified Class 1 foams, and two other fire-rated foams.  He did a large portion of the initial primary work on ecomate® along with one other research at FSI.

Mr. Modray is currently working on a Class 1 ecomate® spray, and has just finished a fire-rated UL94-HF1 ecomate® spray.

Victor Matimba

Victor Matimba attended the California State Polytechnic University. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Biology, with a minor in Biochemistry, a Master's of Science in Microbiology, and a Ph.D. in Microbiology.

Dr. Matimba has a long history of research and development, starting with the University of California Chemistry department, and later ICN Pharmaceuticals, Inc, Foams Systems, Co., PrePolymer Industries, and Universal Urethanes. He worked on cancer-treating drugs at ICN Pharmaceuticals.  At Foam Systems, Co. and PrePolymer Industries he worked on research and development of synthetic resins and prepolymers.

Dr. Matimba has been at FSI since 1991.  His duties have included quality control and research and development of new systems. Over the years, he has assisted in the development of the ecomate® blowing agent.

Dr. Matimba is currently working on new blowing agents.

John Timberlake

John Timberlake graduated from North Carolina State University with Honors in Chemistry (1970), and later attained his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry at University of Florida (1976).

His most recent work with FSI is rigid polyurethane foams for insulation in buildings, refrigeration, and water heaters. He has also worked with polyurethanes in component foams for sealing around windows and doors, thermal break for improving the energy efficiency of aluminum windows and doors, and caulks and sealants for preventing air and water infiltration. 

Dr. Timberlake has experience from basic research to sales including product development, technical service, technical marketing, and product introductions. During his time at Fomo Products, Inc. and Azon USA, he served as Technical Director.  Two patents were issued while he was at Union Carbide in Research and Development. He has also had experience in the Japanese technology market; new products were introduced to Japan and technology was brought back and adapted for United States for polymer sealants.

Dr. Timberlake is currently the ecomate® Technical Director for Foam Supplies.

Mark Denby

Mark Denby has worked with Foam Supplies for the past eight years. Originally placed in production where he worked making batches and filling tanks, he was moved to the Chemistry lab after a year.

Currently Mark assists other chemists on the team, performs quality control checks on all incoming raw materials and assists the Technical department with outgoing batches.

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