Mold release specialist Stoner Molding Solutions turns 75

QUARRYVILLE, Pa.—This Stoner has made it to 75—Stoner Molding Solutions, that is.

The manufacturer of mold release agents is celebrating 75 years in business. It began in 1942, when Paul Stoner developed a mold release agent for rubber after working with a local tire retreading plant.

Today, Stoner mold release agents are distributed throughout North America and internationally, in more than 50 countries.

"My grandfather started Stoner and grew the business with hard work and integrity," said Rob Ecklin, Stoner's president. "But what I noticed the most is how important he considered employees and customers to the success of the business. He was always working hard to bring value-added solutions to both. These are the values we continue to build on today."

Stoner is based in Quarryville, a small town in near Lancaster, Pa. Paul Stoner was born in 1914 on a farm in Lancaster County. He learned the value of hard work and persistence after losing both parents by time he was 12 years old.

He got an education in chemistry at the local Franklin & Marshall College, then developed Stoner's Inc. Co., specializing in inks for printing. He got the idea for a mold release agent while working part-time at the local tire retread factory.

Stoner's hard work led to business partnerships with Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp. and IBM—companies he served with lubrication and cleaning solutions. He developed and made products that would clean and protect the outside of cars, including the first aerosol shine dressing, and what was America's top-selling automotive glass cleaner, according to a company history.

The business grew in the 1950s.

In the 1960s, building on his success in lubricants for rubber molding, Paul Stoner developed release agents for thermoplastic injection molding. The company's expertise expanded into polyurethane molding in the 1970s.

During the 1980s, the company developed new cleaners and products to prevent rust, and in the 1990s, Stoner developed products for investment casting and melt spinning of polyester and nylon fibers.

Stoner in 2000 purchased the Zip Molders Edge products. Six years later, the company bought the Dwight Products Nix Stix line for polyurethane molding. Stoner added the Releasomers line of release agents for rubber and rotational molding in 2008.

In recent years, the company has added other product lines, for rubber and rotomolding, and for composites molding, including Ayer's Cliff Products, TraSys and Specialty Products Co., maker of Honey Wax.

Stoner is the largest manufacturer of release agents for rotomolding.

In 2003, Stoner became the smallest company ever to win the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

Paul Stoner died in 1986, and the company was purchased by Ecklin, his grandson, who grew up working with his grandfather at an early age.

Stoner Molding Solutions has based its business philosophy on the Paul Stoner's values, officials said.