The Environmentally Responsible Choice
Come Together, Right Now (over green)
We are under attack…stainless steel rebar, galvanized rebar, high strength steel rebar and fiberglass bar are all attempting to steal epoxy’s market share in the world of corrosion protection for bridges and structures.
Dating back to the early 1980’s, the epoxy coaters knew the day would come when they needed a united front to sell epoxy coated rebar to the engineers, designers and architects in the bridge offices of the state Department Of Transportation (DOT). In 1982, the Fusion Bonded Coaters Association (FBCA) was formed for this purpose. This new group brought together manufacturers and applicators of FBE powders, many of whom are direct competitors, but all share the sole purpose of promoting epoxy coated reinforcing steel to the DOT.
Over the years, the FBCA evolved and joined the Concrete Reinforcing Steel Institute (CRSI) where, together, they developed coating standards to ensure the highest quality product was sold to the DOT. In 2008, the group which has expanded from just a few companies to now having 18 members, with a more refined message formed the Epoxy Interest Group (EIG). Today, the time has come. This group of fierce competitors must work together for their collective greater good. Our competitors (stainless, galvanized, high strength and fiberglass) have finally made inroads into our market and we – the experts in Functional Bonded Epoxy Coatings - must take back what is ours! Epoxy coated rebar is the most cost effective, regionally available, environmentally friendly and best performing product our tax paying dollars can buy for our infrastructure projects.
It’s not just because we love FBE coatings, it’s because Epoxy Coated Reinforcing Steel (ECR) has many advantages over the competition. First, we have almost unlimited production capacity with over 35 CRSI certified coating plants supplying the United States, where our competitors may only have 2-3 covering the same geographic area. ECR has well over 45 years of experience and performance data available to be evaluated and studied. None of our competitors can come close to this length of actual field performance. Cost? Again, the competition is not even close. On projects specifying the requirement for corrosion protection, none of the competition can beat ECR performance. This means MORE projects and saving tax paying dollars. With sustainable design at the forefront of construction projects, environmentally, ECR is the color green for a reason! If a more environmentally responsible choice is needed, ECR is the only choice.
Once again EIG, along with CRSI, are developing new coating standards for brand new epoxy powder technology that will take our products and ensure success for the next 45+ years. We are using our existing powder technology, its excellent performance history, and adding to it to make it even better. What’s also exciting is the EIG membership has never been so engaged in forming the next generation message and creating a successful path forward for the future. When under threat, we could have just ignored the problem and slowly lost market share to inferior products. Instead, we have come together and will succeed!