Sitting across the conference table was a true ceramic engineer – the first of his kind to be on the premises. He looked over the formulations carefully, asking occasional questions, but mostly pensive.
Watching and listening to him intently were a dozen or so eyes and as many ears.
Finally, he proclaimed, “This technology will not work. These refractory formulas will never stand up to molten metals or temperatures above 2500 degrees [F].”
All of the ears were shocked. The eyes were a little surprised too.
One of the men stood up, leaned across the table, and said, both perplexed and a little defensive, “but they are working in molten metals. We’ve had them in several ladles carrying gray and ductile irons at over 2700 degrees, and they are performing way beyond the expectations of the foundry.”
“Not these formulas,” said the scientist.
“Yes, these formulas exactly. This one in particular,” he said as he pointed to one of the pages spread out on the table. “They say that they’ve never seen their ladles any cleaner and they’ve hardly had to maintain them.”
“Not these formulas. No way,” he insisted.
“Yes,” he persisted. “These formulas are working in molten metal right now – and they’re working very well.”
“No they’re not.”
“Well, thank you for your time,” interrupted another gentleman as he stood from the table.
He wasn’t the last ceramic engineer to be consulted, and neither was he the last to make this assertion.
It would be a couple of years later, after further research and development and dozens of field trials, that a German ceramist among the most respected in the industry would say, “If you had been a ceramic engineer, you never would have invented this. You never would have gone in this direction. But don’t feel bad, Edison didn’t have a degree in light bulbs.”
So began the controversial introduction of Thermbondâ technology into the venerable refractory industry.
Thermbond,a development of Stellar Materials Incorporated of Boca Raton Florida, uses a proprietary patented technology, which Stellar calls “SBS”, or the “Stellar Binder System.”
This system’s original use was as a concrete repair material. It had the perfect properties for this application – capable of bonding aggregate together into a structure that achieved high cohesive and adhesive strengths very quickly. Perfect for permanent road repair and potholes.
What the group behind the technology did not realize was the monumental effort and dollars it would take to overcome the barriers to entry into the road repair industry. The only way to be successful is to get the product specified into applications – a task that would require a tremendous investment of time, money, time, contacts, time, and patience.
So while Stellar started laying the groundwork for this undertaking, they also pursued other markets that promised more immediate results.
One such market was the retail concrete repair market. Stellar developed attractive packaging for quart and gallon sized containers of Phoscrete targeted towards homeowners for repairs around the house.
Hardware stores were impressed with the product. One national chain’s purchasing agent, who insisted on a product demonstration, remarked that he had never seen a concrete material before that truly bonded to concrete. He also remarked, however, that in order to carry the product Stellar would be required to develop full color point-of-purchase displays, a national advertising campaign, and, to top it off, buy back their inventory of the competitor’s products.
He agreed that Phoscrete was a better product, but customers knew and bought his existing product.
A market that Stellar pursued more successfully was the industrial floor repair market. There are countless manufacturing plants all over the country and more relevant at the time, all over the Midwest with concrete problems. Prior to Phoscreteâ, their best option was to cordon off the area for days while a temporary repair was made or weeks while a permanent repair was made.
With Phoscrete, the floor could be permanently repaired and opened up to forklift traffic within an hour.
With initial success in this industry, Stellar forged ahead pursuing and capturing manufacturing plants as customers for Phoscrete concrete repair.
Relatively early in this process, an iron foundry in Michigan that was very pleased with the product, telephoned Stellar with a technical question: Could Stellar make a variation of Phoscrete using high temperature aggregates that they could use as a refractory liner for their iron ladles?
They noticed that when they spilled iron on the floor where Phoscrete had been used as a repair that not only did the iron not spall the concrete, but it also did not stick to the concrete and could be literally peeled right off the floor. They felt that this characteristic would be a great advantage in their iron ladles, which currently suffered from severe penetration of the molten iron slag into their refractory lining. This penetration progressively reduced the capacity of their ladles and required labor-intensive jack hammering to remove the slag, which ultimately destroyed their refractory lining.
They convinced Stellar that there was a tremendous market for a refractory product with these features. So Stellar did a little bit of research, got some refractory aggregate into their laboratory, and made a special mix up for the foundry.
Eagerly, the foundry manager cast a lining, baked it out, and charged it with molten iron at about 2750 degrees F. At the end of the shift, the new lining was completely clean of slag. However, it had also lost almost all of its strength and could easily be chiseled out of the ladle. Although not a complete success, the foundry remained encouraging and Stellar’s technical director set out to develop a product from this technology with true refractory properties.
He virtually buried himself in the modest laboratory learning about and experimenting with refractory aggregates and how the Stellar Binder System impacted them while others in the company continued to pursue sales in the concrete industry, and occasionally wondered what ever happened to him.
About a year later, after extensive testing and trials, Stellar introduced a 60% alumina mullite based refractory product that mixed with a special green liquid phosphate and had excellent refractory properties.
After confirming successful service at the local foundry, Stellar entered into an exposition called the CASTEXPO, which fortunately was held near their offices in Detroit, making it affordable to attend.
At this show, Stellar exhibited some of the unique properties of its new refractory product, which it called “Thermbond.”
At that time, Stellar was operating out of a converted bowling alley in Detroit using antiquated 1950’s vintage mixing equipment. Stellar had no outside sales people, no distribution network, no industry contacts, and no refractory experience.
In the 10x10 booth space, Stellar set up a display in which they cast refractory into a polystyrene cup, removed a hardened and steaming hot refractory piece within minutes, immediately subjected this piece to a MAPP gas flame rated at over 3000°F, quenched the glowing refractory into a bucket of water, and then again exposed it to the flame until red hot.
This display demonstrated to onlookers several properties of this new refractory technology: the ability to set very quickly, the absence of a curing cycle, the absence of a bake-out schedule, and the ability to withstand severe thermal shock.
Although the presentation did not demonstrate three significant features of the Thermbond system, namely its natural non-wetting characteristics, its abrasion resistance, and its ability to repair to existing refractories, it was an eye-catcher. At several points throughout the show, Stellar’s booth was mobbed by contractors, distributors and end users all excited by the features of this new refractory. Throughout the show, Stellar’s small, makeshift booth often had far more activity than the larger booths occupied by the giants in the industry.
With virtually no ability to follow up, Stellar returned from the show with an overwhelming 600 leads. Stellar’s management was sure of two things: there was definitely a demand in this market for a product like theirs; and they would never wear ties to a trade show again.
Among the 600 plus leads from the 1990 CASTEXPO were three leads from potential distributors from the Southeast United States, Canada, and Italy. Each of these contacts eventually resulted in distribution relationships.
In Canada, Stellar established a relationship with a group that ultimately started a company called Stellar Canada Inc. This very first distributor relationship still continues today, with Thermbondâ accounting for a major portion of Stellar Canada’s sales.
In the Southeast, Stellar established a distribution agreement with a regional refractory contractor, a division of a major national foundry supply company. This arrangement lead to a short-lived partnership, but also indirectly lead to a number of relationships with other regional refractory distributors and contractors throughout the country.
One very important relationship that was born out of this lead was with Frank W Schaefer Company of Dayton, Ohio. FWS, a well-respected furnace manufacturer and refractory contractor for over sixty years, quickly embraced the Thermbond technology, and today offers it as the premium lining in their best furnace equipment. More and more, customers are opting for the premium, and also specifying Thermbond in future furnace projects.
The distributor lead from Italy developed into a relationship that continues today as well. At that time, however, Stellar was unable to offer much physical support in the European market and made it clear to the Italian distributor that there would be little help from the US. Nonetheless, they proceeded and created a significant market for Thermbond in Italy.
At the end of 1995, Stellar established a relationship with John Zink Company, the largest burner manufacturer in the world and a division of Koch Industries. In exchange for certain distribution rights around the world, John Zink agreed to establish a Thermbond division to pursue sales in these markets. Originally with a primary focus on the petrochemical industry, the Thermbond Division of John Zink Company grew to six full time sales people, exclusively selling Thermbond across industry and around the world.
Through substantial increases in sales over the next few years, in both 1997 and 1998 Stellar was ranked in Inc Magazine’s “Inc 500” as one of the 500 fastest growing private companies in the United States. In March of 1999, the US Patent Office issued Stellar a patent on this technology, and several worldwide patents are currently pending.
In 2004, Stellar acquired the Thermbond Division of John Zink Company and began to build their own internal direct sales force.
By offering refractory products with features unavailable in traditional refractories, Stellar continues to grow in many refractory markets, with major emphasis on the aluminum and petrochemical industries.
The major attraction to the technology in the petrochemical and power industries is Thermbond’s ability to limit downtime on scheduled and unscheduled turnarounds. By eliminating curing cycles and bake-outs in process units, companies can save several hundred thousand dollars using Thermbond.
While this benefit is also very attractive to the aluminum and other metals melting industries, Thermbond’s natural non-wetting characteristics are offering unparalleled performance in metal contact applications. Thermbond refractories do not use additives to create a temporary non-wetting surface like conventional refractories. The non-wetting characteristics of Thermbond are an integral and natural characteristic of the binder system and are therefore active throughout the life of the lining. A Thermbond lining in metal contact applications stays so clean that jackhammers need never be used and lining maintenance becomes as easy task.
Still another benefit that is attractive across industry is Thermbond’s ability to bond to existing refractories permanently. This feature has opened more doors into applications than any other because it allows a customer to try the material without having to install a full lining, and at the same time, repair a piece of equipment that was previously impossible to repair without putting in a brand new lining. Typically, these veneer applications lead to full thickness linings. The customers are very happy with the performance of the repair, not only because the bond lasted, but also because often the repair outlasts the rest of the original lining. As a result, they specify Thermbond in future linings.
Today, Stellar has more than 90 different Thermbond formulations and employs more than forty people with corporate headquarters in Boca Raton, Florida, an 80,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Whitmore Lake, Michigan, a subsidiary office in Rotterdam, a subsidiary office in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, and sales offices in Houston, Tucson, Knoxville, Indianapolis, Arkansas, Pittsburgh, Portland, Tampa, and Paris, France. Stellar is hopeful that Thermbond refractory technology will continue to revolutionize industries, eventually elevating the reputation of refractories from that of a problem to a solution for industry.
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