History of Polyurethane Grout

Polyurethanes were developed in Germany by Bayer toward the close of WWII; some of their uses were to insulate High altitude bombers during their nightly trips over Britain. As Europe recovered more benign applications were found for this new material which could be made into foams and sheet material for a bewildering array of applications, with wonderful new aspects being discovered one after the other it was realized that this family of materials was very versatile in its properties and development continued at a hurried pace.

In the early seventies it reached the U.S. where Bayer sought to use its properties which had proven useful in Coal Mining in Germany to aid and assist their efforts to find a suitable repair medium for the countries rail Network, specifically tunnels which had fallen behind in maintenance and repair through the war years.

As it happened even though the materials were proven as suitable for the task, the economics and financial status of many of the rail companies meant that few chose to take advantage of these new material advantages.

Realizing the situation Bayer had to encourage other markets to take on board the many benefits this new range of products brought to the table.

One of the most prominent industries chosen for use was mining and to this end they formed a division to develop the use for ground and water sealing applications. As it happens SealGuard's Chemist, OCN Inc, is owned and staffed by the original Manager of that division Mr.Kirk.Mcabe and the Lead Chemist, Mr. Melvin Coons.

Through the seventies and on, polyurethane became the material of choice in mining, when ground and water sealing problems are at issue, to the point where now when all else has failed both for ground and water sealing, the acknowledged solution is polyurethane.