 Transportation |
Sun Coast Chemicals (SCC) of Daytona Inc., Palm Court, Florida was founded in 1989 by race car driver Edward "Buck" Parker to help alleviate problems on the NASCAR Racing Circuit, such as heat and wear damage to engines and transmissions of race cars. The company's first product, X-1R Concentrate Friction Eliminator, established Sun Coast's reputation as a manufacturer of effective lubricants. In 1994, when Lockheed Martin Space Operations (LMSO) was looking for a more environmentally-friendly lubricant for a mammoth transporter, the company turned to Sun Coast for assistance.
LMSO
is NASA's contractor for launch operations at Kennedy Space Center
(KSC). The huge transporter is the Mobile Launch Platform, a
six million pound "crawler" that moves the complete
Space Shuttle from KSC's Vehicle Assembly Building to the launch
pad at one mile per hour. The company asked Sun Coast to develop
a spray lubricant that would eliminate environmental drawbacks
of lubricants then in use yet meet demanding specifications and
provide the crawler with extreme lubrication protection. Working
in cooperation, LMSO and Sun Coast developed the Crawler Track
Lubricant (CTL) in eight months and the formulation passed all
NASA tests, met all Environmental Protection Agency requirements,
and has since become a major part of the Crawler Preventive Maintenance
Program at KSC.
Using the NASA formulation as a departure point, SCC has created
and introduced to the commercial market three spinoff products.
The first was TTL (Train Track Lubricant), a modified version
of CTL that solved a wear problem for the Florida Power Corporation
Railroad System. A second spinoff, also in service with Florida
Power, is the PSL (Penetrating Spray Lube), which is used in
applications where spray lubrication is needed for rust prevention,
for loosening corroded bolts, and for lubricating joints and
hinges. The third offshoot of CTL is the BHF (Biodegradable Hydraulic
Fluid), which has an oxidation life of 10,000 hours.
Sun Coast Chemical's Chris Fornili sprays railroad tracks
with a special lubricant derived from a lube product developed
for NASA's Space Shuttle transporter.
SCC produces a broad family of environmentally friendly lubricants
for applications ranging from industrial assembly lines to oiling
a child's bicycle chain. The company has achieved explosive success
in a short time and now has distribution networks in 52 countries.
