Industry Standards

Our commitment to establishing a national standards program in the United States has been fueled by the awareness that individuals and shops across the United States are performing plastic welding without any formal training and testing programs to verify weld performance. Critical services where environmental, health or safety issues exist requires third party verification with destructive testing of weld specimens. Currently, the only internationally recognized third party testing organization is DVS (German Welding Society).

President and Co-founder of Plastek Werks, Gary Hopkins, is a dedicated member of the American Welding Society where he currently holds the position of Chairman of the G1A subcommittee (Hot Gas Welding and Extrusion Welding) and Vice Chairman of the B2F (Plastic Welding Qualification) subcommittees. He and other volunteer members have dedicated immeasurable amounts of time to implementing standards for plastic welding in the United States. Because of his passion, he has been thoroughly engaged in the ongoing development of a thermoplastic welder certification program for over 19 years.

Hopkins is also a member of National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE) and has authored two NACE publications: “Applied Thermoplastic Welding for Corrosion Resistant Service,” (2001) and “Ongoing American Welding Society’s Plastic Welding Certification Program.” (2009)

As the president of Plastek Werks and a leader in the plastic welding industry, Hopkins knows that long-term thermoplastic weld performance improves dramatically when welders have been trained, tested and certified by proven procedures. Because of this, Plastek Werks welders have been provided all necessary training and each high-performance weld has the integrity to prove it.

Additionally, Plastek Werks Vice President and Co-Founder Mark Kirves has 32 years of plastic fabrication experience. Having worked with hundreds of industries, Mark is an expert plastic fabricator, educator and consultant. He has taught over 200 people the art of plastic welding using DVS and ASTM Standards. Recently, Mark authored welding specifications for field and extrusion welding for underground pipelines. He routinely consults with manufacturers, engineers and designers to establish or improve fabrication and welding techniques specific to their product and project needs.