Enjay

"His increasingly intense wishful thinking also made him want to start building three new laminators according to the same model. However, it wasn’t three new laminators that were needed but more S-50. The problem was that the American military’s need for S-50 plastic meant that it was running out in the market. The Korean War had made S-50 be regarded as a strategic commodity – everything produced went directly to the military. Erik Torudd had to desperately call all the companies that had received samples of S-50 and ask them to send it to Tetra Pak. But the small amount he gathered would not last past August 1953. After that, they would be without viable coating material. Torudd managed to get an audience with the United States Army Quartermaster General to submit a request that Enjay and Tetra Pak be allowed to buy 1,000 tons of S-50 from Standard Oil. The petition was submitted unsuccessfully."

"“The tetrahedron is a brilliant invention, but you will never solve the problems with it,” said, for example, Continental Cans’s chief designer, Ronald Nordqvist. The last hope finally rested with the technical editor of the magazine Modern Plastics, Charles Southwick Jr. Torudd immediately asked him if he knew of any plastic worth trying. Southwick furrowed his brow deeply and pondered. “Well, there is an Esso company in New Jersey called Enjay. They have developed a plastic that is a mix of polystyrene and isobutylene. It is not yet on the market, but it might be worth a visit,” he replied after a moment’s hesitation. At the end of March, they finally got to Enjay. The plastic turned out to be called S-50 and consisted of half isobutylene and half polystyrene. Unfortunately, the 300 tons that had been produced as a trial had already been sent out as sample products to prospective customers. Once again a disappointment. However, it was possible to arrange for Enjay to send samples later in the year when a new batch had been manufactured. In May, after visiting 88 different companies, they returned home to Lund again."