Dr. Robert W. "Bob" Gore (April 15, 1937 – September 17, 2020) was an American engineer and scientist, inventor and businessman. Gore led his family's company, W. L. Gore & Associates, in developing applications of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) ranging from computer cables to medical equipment to the outer layer of space suits. His most significant breakthrough was likely the invention of Gore-Tex, a waterproof/breathable fabric popularly known for its use in sporting and outdoor gear.
Early Life and Education
Dr.
Robert Gore was born in Salt Lake City, Utah on April 15, 1937, to Wilbert
"Bill” and Genevieve "Vieve" Gore. His family relocated to near Newark,
Delaware in 1950, to be near his father's work at the DuPont Experimental
Station in Wilmington, Delaware. The Gore family stayed with friends for
several months while Bob's father built their house. Bob attended school in
Newark beginning in eighth grade.
Gore
graduated with a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering at the University of
Delaware in 1959. With his wife and son, he moved to University Village in
September 1959 to attend graduate school. He completed his graduate studies at
the University of Minnesota, earning an M.S. and then a Ph.D. in Chemical
Engineering in 1963.
Creating a Product: Multi-Tet Cable
While
his father Bill Gore was working for DuPont, he was also experimenting at home
with DuPont materials such as Teflon Polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon PTFE). He
wanted to insulate electrical wires using PTFE, but attempts to coat wire with
powdered PTFE did not produce a consistent coating. In April 1957, while Bob
was still a sophomore at Delaware, Bill showed him around his home lab and
explained the problem he was having.
Bob
suggested surrounding the wire with a different form of PTFE, a white tape that
was already of uniform thickness. His father expected that the PTFE tape would
not stick to the wire, but he tried the idea, and it worked. Wires were laid
between layers of PTFE tape and sent through a grooved calendar roll, then
heated to melt the tape into a coherent coating. The result was a
PTFE-insulated ribbon cable containing multiple copper conductors, later called
"Multi-Tet Cable".
Creating a Company: W.L. Gore and
Associates
Solution
of this technical problem was highly significant, and enabled Gore's parents, Bill
and Genevieve, to create W. L. Gore & Associates in 1958. For the first two
years, the business was run out of the basement of the Gore home. Robert Gore
lived upstairs with his parents, other family members, and employees of the
company. At one point 13 of the 16 people working for the company lived in the
Gore home.
As
stated in a 1960 brochure, the company "was established for the purpose of
developing and utilizing technology in the field of fluorocarbon polymers,
especially polytetrafluoroethylene", materials which “have a great and
undeveloped potential to contribute value to society.”
Multi-Tet
cable was the breakout product for the new company. Bob Gore was listed as the
inventor when W. L. Gore & Associates registered its first patent in 1958,
for what was then called "Multiconductor Wiring Strip". Multi-tet
cable was eventually used in the IBM System/360 and other computers and in
communications and process control equipment. The company provided cables for
the Surveyor satellites and Apollo space craft. During the Apollo 11 space
mission, astronauts used a Gore cable to connect their ship to a seismograph
placed on the surface of the Moon.
Bob
Gore was elected to the Board of Directors of W. L. Gore & Associates in
June 1961, while still a student at the University of Minnesota.
Expansion
After
receiving his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Minnesota in
1963,Robert Gore joined W. L. Gore & Associates as a research associate. In
1967 he became the company's technical and research leader.
Inventing Gore-Tex
In
1969, Bob Gore was researching a process for stretching extruded PTFE into pipe
thread tape when he discovered that the polymer could be "expanded"
into a porous form of PTFE, characterized by extremely high strength and
porosity. He and others had attempted to stretch rods of PTFE by about 10%. His
discovery of the right conditions for stretching PTFE was a happy accident,
born partly of frustration. Instead of slowly stretching the heated material,
he applied a sudden, accelerating yank. The solid PTFE unexpectedly stretched
about 800%, forming a microporous structure that was about 70% air.
A
patent application for expanded PTFE was filed on May 21, 1970, and eventually
two separate patents were issued, one for the product, and another for the
processes for making the product.
Bob
Gore continued to investigate the properties of the new material, studying the
effectiveness of different PTFE resins. He also worked with others to develop
techniques for stretching the material both one-dimensionally, to create long
filaments, and two-dimensionally, to create sheets of the membrane. Two-dimensional
stretching created sheets with greater strength, porosity, and air flow,
opening up possibilities for many new applications.
By
1971, Gore was experimenting with laminates, combining the stretched membrane
with supporting materials for added strength. Based on this work, the company
developed a waterproof laminate called expanded polytetrafluoroethylene
(ePTFE), now trademarked as Gore-Tex.
Medical Applications
Some
of the company's earliest successful products, based on work with laminates,
were burn bandages developed for the Park-Davis company, microfiltration
products for Millipore Corporation, and a membrane for blood oxygenation for Baxter
International. Creating Gore-Tex tubes for use as vascular grafts was another
area of rapid development.
Gore-Tex
is particularly useful internally in medical applications because it is nearly
inert inside the body. In addition, the porosity of Gore-Tex permits the body's
own tissue to grow through the material, integrating grafted material into the
circulation system.
Waterproof Fabric
More
popularly, Gore-Tex is known for its use as a waterproof, breathable fabric,
used in outdoor clothing and sport footwear. To the human eye, it looks and
feels like a smooth fabric. Structurally, the membrane of the fabric contains
about nine-billion microscopic pores per square inch. The holes are large
enough to allow body heat and water vapour to escape, but small enough to
deflect water drops. As a result, moisture from rain or snow cannot penetrate
the fabric, while perspiration can escape as it evaporates.
The
first report of using Gore-Tex to make waterproof, breathable garments appeared
in a market report, April 13, 1972. The manufacturing process was patented
in 1972. The first commercial sales of Gore-Tex were made in 1976 when Early
Winters, Ltd., began making and selling Gore-Tex tents. The next year Early
sold Gore-Tex rainwear.
Gore-Tex
is typically placed between an outer fabric and an inner lining. The material
allows moisture to pass easily from one layer through the next, a process known
as wicking. This, and a polymer coating that increases the ability of the
fabric to repel water, reduce the chance that the wearer will become damp,
cold, or a victim of heat loss. In 1989, Gore began to license
manufacturers to use the Gore-Tex material and label: however, products must
survive rigorous testing in the Gore company's rain room, abrasion tests and
washing machines to be authorized for market release.
Executive Role
Robert
became president and CEO of the company in 1976, replacing his father. The
company retained its base in Newark, Delaware, but expanded worldwide. Ongoing
work has developed Gore's initial ideas and resulted in four main areas of
focus for the company: divisions for fabrics, medical, industrial, and
electronic products. The organization's innovative managerial style has been a
subject of study.
In
2000, Bob Gore stepped down as president, becoming chairman of the board of
directors, a position he held until 2016.
Personal Life
Bob
Gore married his third wife Sarah Louise "Sally" (née Ives) Coons in
the late 1970s. She was a divorced mother of three boys. One of her sons is Chris
Coons, now a United States Senator from Delaware, who worked for several years
as a legal counsel for the family company.
Robert
Gore held nine patents for his work with fluoropolymers.
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