The agreement also provides ECC with access to an extensive line of vinyl ester resins for its own use as well as for distribution.
ECC designs and manufactures composite structures for a range of applications at its manufacturing facility in Wisconsin. Products include flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) equipment for power plants, infrastructure for biofuel processing, components for wind energy systems, and storage systems for the petrochemical, mining and the pulp and paper industries.
The agreement with Swancor marks ECC’s entry into resin distribution to the composites industry, and ensures it has access to materials for its own manufacturing activities.
“From alternative energy to environmental compliance to water management, this product line fits ECC’s business plan to deploy highly-functional, cost-effective composites as an enabler of clean-tech,” says ECC’s CEO Sam Fairchild. “We are very excited to distribute these epoxy resin systems across the wind energy market, especially given the clear indication that market demand for mega-turbines off the East and West Coasts of the United States as well as in the Great Lakes and the Gulf is only now at the formative stage. Very large towers, monopiles and rotor/blade structures made from composites, including carbon fibres, may be the only real solution to the engineering and environmental challenges presented by offshore wind farms. Coupling this emerging demand with existing requirements for conventional wind systems points to really exciting prospects for ECC.”
ECC says that the exclusivity provision in the agreement does not affect Swancor’s existing supply relationships with certain Asian and European wind energy customers.