Anthony C. Mack is an American chemical engineer, inventor and product developer with a specialty in materials.
Mack was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1940. He e graduated 1963 from MIT with BS and MS degrees in Chemical Engineering. In the early 1960s, while working with AVCO Corporation, he was a member of the team that developed the heat shields for the Apollo space vehicle, and was project manager for the development of the rocket nozzles for the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM). These critical components were made from carbon fabric and glass fiber reinforced phenolic and epoxy resin materials engineered for resistance to high heat, high tensile strength, and ablation characteristics to insure fail-safe performance on the Apollo missions.
Mack spent 23 years with Sweetheart Plastics in charge of product development in packaging, food services, materials and quality. He then worked with Fabri-Kal Corporation in product development, materials and quality. Mack now heads Tony Mack Consulting.
Mack has 12 patents for plastic products and food serving systems, and published 7 technical papers involving plastic research, product design and development, quality control, and environmental issues.
His invention of a food serving system for hospitals and nursing homes, cited by the New York Times, provided hot meals on sanitary disposable plastic plates and bowls via an easy to transport battery operated cart that carried 20 trays. Each tray had two independent thermostatically controlled heaters to keep food and soup at proper temperatures via battery power during the entire delivery process. Other patents include tamper evident lids for dairy food containers, and take-out lids for dinner plates that are leak proof and securely attached to the plate, but with an easy tear feature for removal without spilling food.