Sal Monte gets spiritual with the science of polymers

OVIEDO, Fla.—Sal Monte's introduction to plastics started when he went to work for a construction company in New York.

He initially thought he would work to become a civil engineer and get into the family construction business. But one summer his then-girlfriend's father asked him to fill in for a few weeks.

"I went to work for them, and he kept me the entire summer because I'm a workaholic. I just work hard," Monte said.

Monte would go on to be president and co-owner of the company, Kenrich Petrochemicals Inc., alongside the former boss' daughter and his wife, Erika Monte, formerly Erika Gertraud Spiegelhalder.

That summer sparked a 60-plus-year career, dozens of patents ranging from chemicals in lipsticks to some used in military applications and an induction into the Plastics Hall of Fame, to name a few.

Monte was announced as part of the 2020 induction class last year, but because of the coronavirus pandemic, the traditional ceremony has been postponed several times. The ceremony is slated to take place Oct. 7 in St. Petersburg, Florida.

In a conversation peppered with chemical terms, Monte recounted his career for Plastics News from his brightly lit home office in Oviedo.

Breaking it down

Monte initially began his college education at Manhattan College in civil engineering, but once he realized he'd go the route of chemicals and plastics, his sturdy foundation could be applied to a chemical engineering degree.

He'd heard President John F. Kennedy on the radio urge kids to get into engineering, so that's what sounded good to Monte.

"I took up the challenge in engineering," he said. "It didn't matter what I did, I just loved school and I was good at it."

His parents sent him and his siblings to a Catholic high school in Brooklyn, which was where he sparked his love of learning.

"I took engineering—it was the hardest course to take—Brother Leo said to us the first week to look to your left and to look to your right and said, 'That guy won't be there next semester.' And, man, he was right."

He attributes having the solid foundation of a civil engineering degree to the rest of his career in chemical engineering—similar principles can be applied.

"I took civil engineering. I get a degree, a bachelor's degree in structures, raw materials, concrete, steel bars, reinforcement—all the things that the same thing happens in plastic, just different values, but it's the same principles," he said.

Then came the summer of chance when Erika's father asked him to fill in at his chemicals firm.

He worked the whole summer but went back to school for his civil engineering degree and married Erika.

Kenrich Petrochemicals then leased a 10,000-sq.-ft. property in New Jersey in the hopes of making a resin for DuPont Co. that was used for wiring in New York City. The company had gone public in order to receive the contract for the resin but in the process had lost the controlling stake.

Not liking how the newcomers were handling the business, Monte's in-laws bought the business back.

"I wasn't working for (my father-in-law) then; I was in construction as a general constructor," he said. "Then I said the hell with it, I went back to the family business."

Monte joined Kenrich Petrochemicals in 1966 and soon realized he wasn't qualified to run the chemical plant and went back to get a master's degree in chemical engineering from Manhattan College.

I'm a creative guy, and we were making dispersions and I realized that I needed to improve the dispersion over 85 percent ... which is like making cakes, you know, (from) cookie dough," he said.

That chemical formulation is now in 680 cosmetic formulations, half of them lipsticks because it improves the long-lasting wear ability alongside the color.

In 1967, Monte began developing polymers for the U.S. military during the Arab-Israeli conflict.

American servicemen were being killed or injured by ammunitions detonating while inside tanks from an instability with an RDX explosive, loaded with cellulose acetate butyrate. He compared the material to that of screwdriver handles, which could be injection molded to produce a better product.

He realized he could add nanoatomic phosphorus titanium mono-oils on the interface of the RDX to slow the burn rate—and it worked. The process took eight years to get approval for the patent.

Monte can claim the name of 32 chemical patents over the years. The most recent patent being filed in March 2020.

Solutions

"To me, it was like, 'OK, here's the problem. Here are the tools. This is a solution,'" Monte said. "I'm a solutions-oriented person. I don't care what the hell the business is; it's all the same logic.

A Sicilian Catholic born and raised, Monte compares the science of that logic to that of spirit.

"It's inspired, 'in spirited,' which means the Holy Spirit," he mused. "Which means a lot of the religion you learn is based on true communication with the Holy Spirit—you know, philosophy. I was the only civil engineer to take a philosophy class. It's like, 'Why the hell are we doing this?'"

He approached his patents from this simple perspective, asking questions like, "Why are we doing this," "Why is it this way," and realizing that he could make things better.

When he had other workers in the lab, he said, they would often make chemicals and experimented with different batches, dosages and viscosity measurements. The worker would bring him the report.

"And I'd say, 'Holy crap, that's great.' They would have no idea what any of it meant," he said.

They were data-focused, whereas he was more solutions-focused. He said his advice to someone trying to enter the industry was simple: It depends upon your destiny.

"You've got to work hard, and you've just got to be consistent and persistent. The key to success is just being there every time," Monte said.

Once Monte and his wife, Erika, bought the property to their 6-and-a-half-acre plant, they got to work.

Erika handled the purchasing, accounts receivable and she provided the company and the venue for Sal Monte to do his job.

"My partner in life, Erika, has been a key to my success," he said, "because she's been with me every part of the way."

Erika and Sal Monte will celebrate 60 years of marriage in October.

Kenrich was run by a three-generation family until 2015, when Sal and Erika moved to Florida and run the operations out of there with the manufacturing moved to Tennessee.

The couple has four children—Michelle, a lawyer; Denise, a surgeon; Deborah, a psychologist; and Eric, an engineer—and six grandchildren.

Legacy

"You know, they say the keys to happiness are to eternalize yourself in your work," Monte said. "To be recognized in the Hall of Fame is that eternalization recognition and that's the satisfaction that 'he' wasn't totally wasted."

Monte has written more than 500 abstracted works and 32 patents. He's given speeches in every U.S. state and has visited 52 countries, including lectures in India, Australia, Japan and South Korea.

"I spread the gospel; it's just good for the technology that I represent to have the recognition to go with it because it makes the technology that more respected," Monte said.

Kenrich makes coupling and catalyzing agents, anti-static agents, plasticizers and other products. The 25-employee firm has been in business since 1945 and at its current location since 1961. Monte is still overseeing the company, though from a chair position, remotely from his Florida home. The coronavirus pandemic helped usher a cloud-based system for the company.

His first commercial titanate was hailed as a new coupling agent for filled polyethylene in 1974.