New Strand Pelletizer Added To Our Lab

Sesotec is excited to announce their new office location within The Polymer Center in Charlotte, NC.

In May 1848, Henry Bewley, of the Gutta Percha Company of London, patented a process for making flexible syringes and tubes of gutta percha. He described the process as one that involved “filling a suitable mold with a substance in a granular state,” after which he would “subject these molds to a heat sufficient to liquefy the gutta percha, which on subsequent cooling will be found to retain the exact shape or figure of the molds.” [1] His company went on to make various molded and, later, extruded products, including wire coating for submarine cables. One example of his molding process is a coat of arms, pictured below, that resembled “the choicest carved or gilded oak, rosewood, or mahogany,” but was not fashioned by a skilled artist. Instead, it was manufactured “by merely pressing the ungainly lumps into a mold.” With such a mold, thousands of identical products could be manufactured “without the usual expense of artist work.” [2]