Date: Fri 30-May-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

business-Jossick-Teflon

Full Text:

Newtown Firm Wins Prestigious Award For Innovation

BY KAAREN VALENTA

A Newtown company has developed a process that could revolutionize the field

of thermal spray coatings, and it has won the prestigious DuPont Plunkett

Award for Innovation with Teflon for its work.

Spray-Tech Inc of 15 Commerce Road and Frank N. Longo Associates of East

Northport, N.Y., developed a one-step method for applying Teflon coatings

which last five times as long as the conventional Teflon coatings used in a

wide range of industries.

Owned by the Jossick family, Spray-Tech is a spin-off of Connecticut

Engineering Associates, a corporation headquartered on Philo Curtis Road for

the past 30 years.

Spray-Tech's new coating technology provides low friction, low wear, corrosion

protection and, perhaps most important of all, it can be applied right at the

job site. The key to the patented system is a thermal barrier that protects

particles of Teflon PTFE resin against destruction by the extreme heat of

thermal spraying.

Developed over the past 2« years, the new technology already is being used in

the paper manufacturing and printing industries.

"We take plastic particles that melt at 250 degrees and encapsulate them in a

thermal barrier - ceramic or metal - pass them through a thermal flame of

30,000§ F - hotter than the sun - and the plastic isn't destroyed," explained

Gerald R. Jossick, president of Spray-Tech. "We put it with another in a blend

or composite to make a hard coating which is much more durable than Teflon."

The system also avoids the problem which usually occurs when Teflon is

overheated: it decomposes and produces phosgene gases.

"There's no decomposing and no poisonous gases," Mr Jossick said.

In the paper manufacturing industry, Teflon is used to coat huge rollers which

are as much as 30-feet long, 10-feet in diameter, and weigh 70 tons each.

"They are massive," Mr Jossick said. "There might be 50 rolls at one mill. The

Teflon coating is used because you don't want the paper to stick to the rolls.

These rolls are embedded in concrete forms; when the coating wears off, the

rolls must be jack hammered out and trucked to a place to get re-coated.

"[By contrast] our method is so simple," he said. "You can do it right in the

field and it lasts five times as long. When I met the judges [in the DuPont

competition], they were amazed by it."

Named for the DuPont scientist who discovered PTFE, Dr Roy J. Plunkett, the

award is presented biennially in an international competition, with regional

awards from the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific. It was established in 1988

in honor of the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the first fluoropolymer

resin that DuPont has since branded under the Teflon trademark.

The first fluoropolymer, Teflon PTFE, was discovered by DuPont laboratories in

1938. Teflon fluoropolymer resin is now a part of everyday life, from today's

state-of-the-art no-stick cookware to wire and cable insulation and all phases

of the space program, including fuel tanks and heat shields.

Entries in the Plunkett Award competition were judged on degree of innovation,

breadth of application and commercial significance or impact (actual and

potential). Entries had to demonstrate such benefits as enhanced or improved

quality assurance, design performance, safety, reliability, performance,

energy savings or cost reduction.

In presenting the award to Spray-Tech, the judges' comment was, "This entry

met every benefit listed in the entry form. They could check all them off."

Mr Jossick credited Frank Longo as the inventor of the new system.

Semi-retired, Mr Longo lives in East Northport, Long Island, where he works as

a consultant out of his home.

"He had an idea and we developed it together," explained Mr Jossick, who lives

on Surrey Trail.

Besides Mr Jossick, Spray-Tech includes his wife, Carol, who is company vice

president; their daughter, Maureen, secretary; nephew, David Jossick, general

manager, and Mr Jossick's brother, Ray, who is director of sales and

marketing. Two other Jossick brothers, Jim and Bob, and their father, who is

now deceased, started Connecticut Engineering in Sandy Hook in 1967, moving

here from Bridgeport.

Mr Jossick also owns the Chase Building at the flagpole on Main Street (he was

responsible for the stripping and re-painting of the building last year) and

the building that houses The Florist on the Green on West Street, and says he

is looking for other buildings to buy.

In a news release sent to publicize the award, the winners were described as

"Companies who ... are representative of those surviving and prospering in

today's highly competitive global business environment through innovation and

invention. Economists like to distinguish between invention and innovation,

pointing out that it takes innovation to provide capitalism with its dynamic

elements. The 1997 DuPont Plunkett Awards demonstrate the technological

progress that ensures when both are present, and it is paying off big time in

the marketplace."

"Our system is really revolutionary," Mr Jossick said. "When we first started

to develop it, it won the Award of Excellence from the Asian Thermal Spray

Society in September 1995. We have two patents and another is pending, in not

only the United States but also Europe, Asia, Japan and South America."

"This is like a paradigm shift in the way you do thermal spray coatings," he

said. "The potential is unlimited."