Rafael Chou News

January of 2017 saw the retirement of one of the veterans of the Samson family. Tony Bon, CEO through 2015 retired as of December 31, 2016. Bon shares his impressions of the time he’s been with Samson and the high points of both the company and the industry it serves. In the Navy they have an expression to describe a captain that moves up through the ranks: “He came up through the hawse pipes.” Bon’s journey to the corner office at Samson is a similar story. In 1974, after leaving Berklee College of Music in Boston, Bon needed a job.

Samson, specialist in performance cordage, is launching Samson’s newest 12-strand stringing line, incorporating Innegra-S fiber. ML-12 is Samson’s newest 12-strand stringing line, blending Innegra-S, a high modulus polypropylene (HMPP), and Dyneema, a high modulus polyethylene (HMPE). This blend of fibers gives ML-12 performance characteristics between traditional polyesters and high-performance 100% Dyneema stringing lines. “We knew we had to consider fibers that were unfamiliar to the rope industry in order to achieve our goals,” said vice president of research and development, Dr. Rafael Chou. “Historically, if you wanted a fiber that would out perform traditional nylon and polyester, you had to leap into high-performance fibers like HMPE, LCP, and aramids.