History

Free to produce sheet laminate, Faber & O’Conor rented a plant near the Cincinnati stockyard and installed a new $6,000 press. The first Formica-brand sheet came off the press on July 4, 1914; the company turned a profit for the first time in 1916; then boomed with defense orders in 1917 when the U.S. entered the war in Europe.

Growth continued unabated with sales hitting $175,000 in 1919. Strong sales, combined with growth potential in new markets, forced the Company to move to the Winton Place neighborhood in Cincinnati, which remained the site of Formica headquarters until after World War II.

Five years of lawsuits began in 1919 over patent infringement and other issues. Formica Corporation found itself involved in litigation against Westinghouse and General Electric, cases that also involved the leading resin manufacturers – Bakelite, Redman/Karpen and Condensite.

Ultimately, Formica Corporation won the war and benefited greatly from an agreement between Bakelite and the Karpens. The resulting merger created the new Bakelite Corporation, ready to provide material and technical assistance to all, including Formica.

An important new market appeared in the early 1920’s: automotive timing gears. Quickly, Faber & O'Conor sold a Chicago parts maker on trying gears cut from phenolic resin blanks. The new gears were tough and quiet – and by 1932, Formica was producing 6,000 gear blanks a day for Chevrolet, Studebaker, Buick, Auburn, Pontiac, Willy-Overland and other automotive giants.

In 1927, Formica Corporation obtained a patent on an opaque barrier sheet that allowed the use of rotogravure printing to make decorative wood-grained or marble-surfaced laminate. Developed by the Company’s George H. Clark and Jack D. Cochrane, it was the first of many products that were to make the Formica brand synonymous with café tables and kitchen countertops.

Once again, Formica Corporation realized it had a potential gold mine in hand. Steadily, the Company’s engineers worked to improve the new product, testing different inks and resins, cores and surfaces, processes and methods. Urea resins were adopted to improve durability and expand the possible range of colors and designs. Formica Corporation engineers even developed a “cigarette-proof” surface used in the Art Deco décor of Radio City Music Hall.

By 1937, Formica Corporation sales reached $3.5 million – up from $1.9 million in 1923 and a mere $360,000 in 1921. And in Scotland, the Formica brand name got a publicity boost when designers selected Formica brand laminates to create sleek wall surfaces on The Queen Mary, a luxurious new ocean liner in the Cunard White Star Line.

The following year, a new resin appeared: melamine. Developed by American Cyanamid Company, melamine resisted heat, abrasion and moisture better than phenolic or urea and could be used to make more colors. It could also be molded. Soon, Formica Corporation was buying every ounce of melamine American Cyanamid made.

War was about to grip the world. Like many companies, Formica Corporation benefited from defense work, developing a new glass-melamine laminate for electrical insulation and early silicone and epoxy laminates. Plastic-impregnated “Pregwood” was used in airplane propellers and “burster tubes” for bombs generated the Company’s single biggest order. At war production peak in 1943, sales reached $15.7 million.

Immediately following the end of World War II, Formica Corporation entered the European market in 1946 through a license agreement with De La Rue Company of London. European manufacturing and marketing rights continued to be held by the British firm until 1977. The product was so successful that the Formica brand laminate name soon became recognized throughout Europe. Formica Corporation currently has manufacturing facilities in the U.K., France and Spain. {still true?}