LOVELAND – Loveland-based veterinary products manufacturer Dale Peterson has started a new company called Plast-aid Inc., which will manufacture and market Plast-aid, a multipurpose adhesive.Peterson, who describes himself as a burned-out chemistry teacher, has developed and manufactured veterinary products for more than 20 years. As a manufacturer for Jorgensen Laboratories in Loveland, he produces products primarily for stock animals. His new product, Plast-aid, is based on a material used for hoof repair for horses and cows.
Peterson chemically altered the product to create a creamy substance that turns to a malleable, claylike material and hardens into a plastic in about eight minutes. As it cures, Past-aid becomes a sticky adhesive that bonds to most surfaces. After it hardens, it can be machined, sanded and painted.
“Plast-aid is a general repair material that bonds to just about anything you make rough,” Peterson said. “It has all sorts of applications, including, plumbing, spas, pools, business machines and automotive and household repairs.”
Peterson has selected Randy Amen, one of his former chemistry students, to run the Estes Park-based Plast-aid company. The company has a patent pending for the product, and the partners are looking for distributors. To market the product – a blister pack containing four ounces of powder, 2 ounces of liquid, a mixing cup and a stirring stick – Peterson and Amen are taking a hands-on approach.
“Our tactic has been to get the product into the hands of potential users who, if they like it, will talk to their dealers, who in turn will talk to the distributors,” Amen said.
“Things are really starting to happen,” Amen added. “We have several dealers in Fort Collins and Loveland and a few in Boulder and Denver, and we’ll probably do some trade shows.”