Monthly Archives: May 2014

Decades of Epoxy Technology

By Tim Atkinson — Senior Chemist

Epoxyworks #4, Spring 1994

Cover Photo: The Formula 40 trimaran ADRENALIN is just one of the high-end epoxy composite structures built during Gougeon Brothers first 25 years.

Editors note: Our head chemist Tim Atkinson penned this piece on some of the history of Gougeon Brothers, Inc. on the occasion of our 25th anniversary, back in 1994.

In 1969, Meade Gougeon and his younger brother Jan founded Gougeon Brothers’ Boatworks to build iceboats. These lightweight, sail-powered vessels were built of wood laminated with epoxy. By 1973, the company was the largest builder of iceboats in the country. The company rapidly expanded its business into other boat-building efforts. Continue reading →

A Gadget for Easy Syringe Filling

by Brian Knight—GBI Technical Advisor

WEST SYSTEM® 807 Syringes are handy for injecting epoxy into hard-to-reach areas, but it’s difficult to load the syringe with thickened mixtures that won’t pour into the syringe body. With this gadget, loading non-sag mixtures is easy. It consists of a flat plastic disc with a short length of PVC pipe bonded over a hole cut in the center of the disc. Push the disc down in a container of thickened epoxy and epoxy is forced out through the hole in the disc, through the PVC tubing, and into the syringe. Continue reading →