If you make products or equipment that must stand up to real world conditions, we can help you make them smarter, quieter and more efficient. As a global supplier of precision fabricated thermal and acoustical materials, Concote manufactures and distributes foam, fiberglass, plastics and adhesives with an eye towards maximizing efficiency, performance and durability.
Spectape is a distributorship, reselling and converting industrial packaging tapes, packaging materials and other specialty items predominantly involving pressure sensitive adhesive systems.
Insul-Fab is a manufacturer and converter of foam goods, rubber products, fiberglass, plastics, adhesives and other composite materials which serve primarily as acoustic, thermal and electrical barriers and insulators. All of Insul-Fab’s products are made to customer-specification.
You can’t pick up an electrification industry trade magazine lately without reading about new developments in the field of energy storage. The technology offers numerous benefits… It can smooth demands on the local electrical grid, negate concerns with solar/wind energy fluctuations, lower costs to end-users by avoiding peak-rate surcharges, harness the outputs of multiple sources of renewable energy, provide backup capabilities for critical infrastructure (i.e. hospitals), delay local Governments needing to invest in costly grid improvements, and more.
Often, the acronyms ESS and BESS seem to be used interchangeably. Both refer to Energy Storage Systems, which are used to store and release energy, but there is a difference between the two.
ESS stands for "Energy Storage System." It is a broad term used to describe any system that stores energy for later use. This includes CHEMICAL (i.e. biofuels, hydrogen), ELECTROCHEMICAL (i.e. Batteries, Fuel Cells), ELECTROMAGNETIC (i.e. Inductors, Superconducting Magnets), THERMAL (i.e. latent heat), MECHANICAL (i.e. compressed air, flywheels), HYDRAULIC (i.e. pumped hydro storage, pressurized fluids) and HYBRID (i.e. battery-to-fuel cell) systems.
BESS stands for "Battery Energy Storage System." Because batteries store electric energy as chemical energy (then convert it back to an electrical form when needed), it is a type of ELECTROCHEMICAL ESS. As such, BESS is only one of many sub-categories of the broad "Energy Storage System” (ESS) framework.
Concote Corporation, doing business as InsulFab and Spectape, is pleased to have once again been included on the Dallas Business Journal’s List of Top North Texas Manufacturing Companies, ranked by total local employment. Concote made the list at #10, up from its previous ranking of #18 from 2021. The Dallas Business Journal compiles a variety of business lists that appear in the Business Journal’s weekly edition and annual Book of Lists. Over the course of the prior two years, the North Texas Manufacturing List has included several of Concote’s Customers, such as Lockheed Martin, Envision Dallas, and Raytheon, as well as other large-scale regional manufacturers, including General Motors Arlington Assembly, Trinity Industries, and Bell Helicopter. With an overall North American workforce of approximately 200, Concote continues to grow remain a premier converter and fabricator of engineered materials for a variety of original equipment manufacturers.
Rogers Corporation, makers of silicone under the trade names Poron and Bisco, recently hosted its Preferred Converters Conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during the first week of May. Although many companies fabricate and convert Rogers Engineered Materials, Preferred Converters maintain high standards of quality, technical capability and customer service ensuring the best possible experience for end-users. The three day educational summit focused heavily on electrification of vehicles and equipment. Significant investment is being made by Rogers and its Preferred Converters, like InsulFab, to meet the design challenges presented by Electric Vehicle battery packs, as well as those of the Electric Vehicle chargin and supply equipment.
Does InsulFab fabricate materials that are installed in the new fighter jets featured in the Paramount’s upcoming film, Top Gun: Maverick, schedule for released in May 2022? According to Shelby Ricketts, an aerospace product manager, it’s classified. “We could tell you, but then we’d have to kill you.”
In the movie, Maverick’s new ride is a Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet and is a successor to the F/A-18 Hornet, with a 20% larger airframe, 33% more fuel capacity and 41% longer range. Top Gun: Maverick will also feature the F-35C, made by Lockheed Martin. The F-35C is the Navy’s aircraft carrier version of the Joint Strike Fighter, but with greater wing area, more robust landing gear and, of course, the requisite aircraft carrier landing hook.
As an AS 9100 aerospace and defense supplier to OEMs Boeing and Lockheed, InsulFab provides engineered insulation products that meet strict specifications for weight, flammability and density. High standards of quality, technical capability and regulatory compliance are not only expected, but demanded. As for whether or not InsulFab supplies materials for the fighter jets featured in Top Gun: Maverick, we prefer not to say.