Carboline was founded in 1947 by Stanley Lopata, in St. Louis, Missouri. While working as a manufacturer's representative selling corrosion-resistant equipment to the chemical industry, Stanley developed a furan-based patching material that repaired glass-lined tanks in the chemical industry. He applied an innovative technology to solve a customer's problem. The "carbon-based lining" he developed lead to the creation of the Carboline Company. We have been in the lining business ever since!
By the early 1960's the product package offered by Carboline included not only Carbozinc 11 (first self-curing inorganic zinc primer) and Carbomastic 15 (a surface-tolerant aluminum mastic), but other familiar trade names such as Phenoline, Rustbond, Carboglas, Polyclad and Pyrocrete Fireproofing products.
During the 1950's Carboline's first licensee was established in France which became the basis for Carboline's expansion around the world. We now have licensees in Indonesia, New Zealand, Singapore, Puerto Rico, Costa Rico and Venezuela with Joint Ventures in China, Korea, Norway, Japan and India. Carboline affiliates are in Europe, the Middle East, South Africa, Argentina, Canada and Mexico.
The 1970's were a period of dramatic growth for Carboline. Business in industries such as Offshore, Refineries, Petrochmeical, Nuclear Power, Conventional Power and Pulp and Paper grew rapidly. New marketing efforts in General Maintenance, Highway Bridges and Marine Linings were also established. To handle expansion and growth, Carboline was sold to Sun Company in 1980. They in turn sold Carboline to RPM, Inc., in 1985. Since then, Carboline has acquired Plasite, Imperial, Briner Paint, Sentry Polymers, Nullifire, A/D Fire and Nu-Chem Fireproofing products. These acquisitions continued to expand Carboline's capabilities in the high performance coatings, linings and fireproofing markets.
Today, we have four manufacturing facilities located in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Lake Charles, Louisiana, Louisa, Virginia and Toronto, Canada. Carboline also has over 30 service centers / warehouses located throughout North America.
Our reputation has been built through years of successfully providing superior high-performance coatings and linings around the world. Carboline products have been used in the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, the Golden Gate Bridge, Busch Stadium, the Vertical Assembly Building at Cape Canaveral (moon program), 3-Mile Island Nuclear Facility, Olympic Stadium for the 1996 Summer Games, and the Galfaks Platform (one of the most profitable off-shore developments in the North Sea) just to name a few.
The innovation of new products developed from new technology continues to be the driving force for Carboline's success. We have never lost sight of what brought us from our beginnings in Stanley's basement to a world class supplier of high performance coatings..."help our customers solve problems."