Many people are unaware the historical sole source monopoly calsil supplier in the United States made a formal joint venture (JV) with a Shanghai calsil factory. The name of the Chinese factory at the time of the JV was SEPMW (Shanghai Electric Power Machine Works). This factory produced 3′ long filter pressed calcium silicate insulation and shipped it in cartons with the U.S. brand name artwork to the United States with a “Made in China” label on the bottom edge of the carton (see red circled photo). The JV started in 2004 http://www.bec-industrial.com/history.html and ended at a later unspecified time.
Photo taken by author in the field (June 2018)
http://www.scoar.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/IIG-Company-Showcase.pdf
In 2014, this same factory (pictured in slide and TPS Crew Photo) was purchased by Zhong Yongbao and renamed BEC Industrial (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. Unlike the previous factory owners, BEC Industrial never entered into a JV with the U.S. monopoly supplier. BEC tried unsuccessfully for several years to gain entry of their filter pressed calsil back into the large North American market. In 2018, BEC formed an exclusive import brokering agreement with Thermal Pipe Shields, Inc. Through the many benefits of competition, BEC calsil is now available for sale under the trade marked brand name TPSX-12. If the calsil from this Chinese factory was good enough for the North American market back then, it is still good enough! Same factory and same high quality product, but the differences now are the BEC product ships in a TPS logo box and TPSX-12 is the only durably water resistant 3′ long Chinese calsil insulation that meets and exceeds all the physical property requirements in accordance with ASTM C533 type I.
