THE EVOLUTION OF THE REVOLUTION
Asbestos Hub talks to Lloyd Ludlow about Phoenix Brands, the CapSure range of products and what he calls “The Evolution of the Revolution”
How did you get to where you are with Phoenix? I started Phoenix Brands about a year ago. I’ve been in the heavy demolition and industrial demolition and civil construction world for nearly 38 years, all over the world working on major projects and with major companies. Back in the day I was working in Europe on other projects like industrial demolition, nuclear demolition and decommission projects. Over the years, I had problems with colleagues with mesothelioma, high lead levels in their blood and everything else. It became a pet peeve of mine. Four or five years ago I started to have some ideas on improving things. Everybody was spraying water on debris. When I talked to colleagues, especially scientists, I knew that the water wasn’t actually encapsulating any of the dust. People didn’t grasp that the water evaporated and so it was just suspended in the air, or bounced off the floor. So I came up with a few ideas and I went to scientists that I knew, including Dr Arthur Frank from Drexel University in the US. Then I teamed up with a manufacturing company with scientists in the UK called Rutpen. So about four years ago I came up with this idea. In the demolition world, what do
asbestos hub magazine | 28
In the demolition world, what do we use the most? Magnets we use the most? Magnets. So I thought, we’re using magnets anyway, asbestos is positively charged so if I could get a formula that could be suspended in the air, that could draw these in like a magnet. So we created that formula. Negative charges were created for the asbestos and positive charges were created for silicon, etc. We had these variants of this surfactant foam based material that could encapsulate the particles and create a zero release, then it becomes heavy and sticks to the floor. So I came up with this idea and put a patent together for the process and the product. I’ve got four patents on it, and I own the trademarks on all the names. My wife Nicola came up with the name CapSure™ and helped with the branding.
