QPoly to add FKM capacity, moving to bigger location

GRANGER, Ind.—It all started as a pretty please with a cherry on top.

And it's a good thing it did. Because that one request for fluoroelastomers from a very loyal customer changed the course of Michael Shaul's career. In a good way. It led to new business opportunities that have taken root, blossomed and continue to grow for a fairly young rubber industry company, QPoly L.L.C.

At the time of the request, Shaul—now QPoly president—was working with Specialty Products & Polymers Inc. when a valued customer approached the team. We know you focus on silicone, the customer said, but could you please mix some FKMs?

"We said, 'we don't really do that,' but they came back and said, 'We really want you to,' " Shaul recalls.

So he did.

He tried his hand at mixing FKMs. And it turned out he and Specialty Products were really good at it. So good, in fact, that the potential to grow business around the high-end elastomeric material quickly became apparent.

So in 2017, QPoly became its own business, spinning off from Specialty Products, which retained its focus on silicone. And Shaul, who had spent 11 years with Specialty Products, took the helm of QPoly, which would focus entirely on fluoroelastomers.

"It's been a lot of fun," Shaul said. "It has had its challenges, but it really gives us a chance to get out and meet a lot more of the customers, find out what they are doing with FKM and how we can help them."

What he and the QPoly team are finding is that there is plenty to help with. Especially as new trends emerge in the custom mixing space and the end markets for FKM applications.

For automotive and aerospace particularly, new technologies are driving the need for higher-end elastomers. Particularly, Shaul said, as engine temperatures run hotter and the transition to synthetic fluids rise, the need for FKMs continues to grow.

But for QPoly, like many throughout the rubber industry and the custom mixing sector, rising demand was just one part of the equation. There have been challenges, too. Significant ones, particularly when it came to securing needed chemicals and raw materials.

"Last year was a bit of a disaster for supply. It took quite a bit of work to manage that and work with our customers," Shaul said. "… It is starting to improve this year, or at least through this year. We have worked very closely with our suppliers and we have a good supply chain."

To help ensure it had the materials it needed, Shaul said QPoly turned to air freight to keep its supplies stocked and better meet the needs of customers who were depending on QPoly's on-time deliveries. Ultimately, Shaul credits the company's small size, agility and excellent team for its continued ability to serve its customers. And that reputation for quality is preceding it.

As rubber products makers throughout North America look to diversify and shorten their supply chains, a lot are turning to QPoly for the FKMs they need.

"We actually turned down a lot of business last year because we wanted to be sure that we could support our current customers," Shaul said.

Hopefully, though, that won't be the case for long.

Less than five years after launching QPoly, demand for the company's FKMs continued to grow, so Shaul began looking for more room.

It's just that the process didn't go quite as quickly as planned. Nonetheless, his patience paid off.

"Just this week—yesterday afternoon—I signed a deal on a new building," Shaul said Feb. 9. "It has taken three years to find a property. In this area (the needed real estate) was nonexistent. A lot of the buildings were too small or way too large—100,000 square feet and up. … Finding the right-sized building with the power to host the large mixers was more difficult than I expected."

Shaul said he found the perfect place in Elkhart, Ind., about 10 miles east—and just a little bit south—from the company's current location in Granger. The move will more than double the company's space, bringing the total square footage to about 12,000—up from the 5,000 square feet at its Granger location. That gives QPoly room for another mixing line.

Shaul noted that new facility sits on about two total acres, so once the company has settled into its new space, it plans to add even more. In the near future, QPoly looks to break ground on an expansion project that will bring an additional 3,000 or 4,000 more square feet to the Elkhart facility.

When all is said and done, Shaul said, QPoly will have invested more than $1 million in the upgraded facilities and equipment.

And it doesn't plan to slow down any time soon.

"Everything is indicating that we are going to continue to grow," Shaul said, noting that the company will continue to invest in its operations to build on its capacity as well as product quality. "We want to automate and streamline as much as we can."