| After 45
years in the titanium industry, George J. Esseff Sr. has decided to retire
from Supra Alloys, Inc. George was one of the original entrepreneurs in
the field of commercial usage of titanium. In his position as a chemist
and metallurgist for the government in 1952, at Fort Belvor, VA, he worked
with titanium. Later he developed and patented a titanium clad aluminum
cored spline which became the basic component for the use of titanium for
all other fixtures in anodizing racks. Esseff was at the forefront of
developing applications for titanium in areas of the industrial markets
such as the metal finishing industry (baskets, racks, coils, etc.), the
chemical/petro-chemical field (vessels, heat exchangers, etc.) and
recreational markets such as bicycles, marine hardware and others.
He founded
Ticore Inc. which later became Futura Titanium also Cosmos Minerals which
recently became Astro-Cosmos and Supra Alloys Inc. (SAI), his most recent
company.
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His dedication to expanding the use of titanium, along with a
handful of other pioneers and his call for a titanium metals society, led
the way for today's ITA. His vision of a global market in the late 60's
helped lead to development of markets in Europe and cooperation with
suppliers and manufacturers in Japan. His companies were involved in
licensing technologies for bi-metal cladding and a variety of
environmental types of equipment all of which were successfully marketed
in the U.S.
Over
the past few years and more recently due to some health problems George
has become less involved in the day to day operation of SAI. George Esseff
Jr. has picked up most of these responsibilities. As of May, 1997, George
Sr. will officially retire and George Jr. will become President and CEO of
SAI. George Sr. will remain on with the company as a consultant.
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