Until as late as 1950, the leading resin in terms of annual U.S. consumption tonnage was not a thermoplastic but a thermoset: phenolic. For many years prior to that time, two of the techniques widely used for processing phenolic and other thermoset materials were compression molding and transfer molding. The later was an over compression molding in that it made the encapsulation of metal inserts easier and more controllable. Even today transfer molding is widely used to insert-mold devises in the semiconductor industry.

In 1926, Frank Shaw led a team of molding experts at the Shaw Insulation Company in developing the transfer molding process. For this achievement, in 1943 Shaw received the plastics industry�s highest honor at the time: the John Wesley Hyatt Award. He earned a military citation for his work during WW II on the M-52 mortar fuse and on firing pins.

Shaw also made plastics history as one of the small group of industry people who met in 1937 at a resort in Shawnee-on-Delaware, Pennsylvania, to form the Society of the Plastics Industry. Inc. (SPI), the leading plastics trade association in the U.S.