Armstrong Cork Company

Armstrong Cork Company of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, made cork, flooring and insulation. Its asbestos products included pipe and block insulation that it sold and installed through its own contracting business, the sprayed insulation Armaspray, Accopac and Accobest asbestos gasket sheets, and Excelon vinyl-asbestos floor tile. As Armstrong World Industries it filed for bankruptcy in 2000, and an asbestos trust set up in 2006 now pays claims for its products.

Draft. The history on this page was written from the documents in our library and has not yet been reviewed by a person.

History

The company's 1951 insulation handbook, Armstrong's Industrial Insulations, says it had "enjoyed a steady growth since its founding in 1860" and was engaged "in a variety of fields as diversified as flooring, glass packaging, and textile mill specialties."¹ When Vice President Dwight L. Armstrong died in 1944, Asbestos, the industry's trade journal, described him as the grandson of Thomas M. Armstrong, "founder of the Company," and said he had joined the company in 1919 at its Pittsburgh factory before moving to the Linoleum Division in Lancaster.² According to the 1986 Sourcebook on Asbestos Diseases, a compilation by plaintiffs' attorneys, the business began as a partnership, Armstrong Bro. & Co., in 1864, not the 1860 the handbook gives; it was incorporated in Pennsylvania on December 30, 1891, and took the name Armstrong Cork Co. on January 14, 1895.³⁹⁴⁰ The same book says Armstrong Cork bought Asbestos Supply Co. in 1951.⁴⁰

Armstrong worked on insulation materials early. A patent granted to Charles H. Belknap in 1912 for a heat-insulating material was assigned to Armstrong Cork Co.¹¹ In 1931 Asbestos listed a patent assigned to Armstrong Cork Company of Pittsburgh for a composite insulating material with a diatomaceous earth body, and in 1936 a patent for a moulded cork cover for pipe fittings assigned to the company at Lancaster.¹²³ The journal's notices name the company's presidents over the years: H. W. Prentis, Jr., in 1943 and 1949, C. J. Backstrand in 1951 (chairman by 1963), and M. J. Warnock in December 1963.^1314151617

Insulation contracting. The 1951 handbook was written for buyers of industrial insulation and describes "Armstrong's Contracting Organization," which installed the insulation the company sold.¹ It states that "The Armstrong Cork Company furnishes and installs the 85% Magnesia Pipe Covering and Block and other heat insulation products of the Keasbey and Mattison Company in most of the nation's leading industrial centers."⁵ In December 1957 Asbestos reported that a wholly owned subsidiary, Armstrong Contracting and Supply Corporation, was being formed to take over the contracting work of Armstrong's Insulation Division; a 1960 item said the subsidiary had been formed in 1958.¹⁸¹⁹ In December 1969 the journal reported that Armstrong Cork had sold its subsidiary AC and S, Inc. to North Lime Corporation on August 1 of that year.²⁰ (See AC and S, Inc..)

Canada. Armstrong Cork Canada was one of four firms reporting vinyl-asbestos floor tile production to Statistics Canada for 1972, and a 1978 report placed it at Montreal, Quebec.²¹²²

Asbestos products

Insulation. The 1951 handbook says Armstrong's 85% magnesia was a mixture of magnesia and asbestos in which "not less than 10% is asbestos fiber," and says Hy-Temp, for lines and surfaces from above 600°F to 1900°F, was "made from calcined diatomaceous earth, asbestos fiber, magnesia carbonate, and binders."⁵²³ Armstrong's own sworn answers in 1970 lawsuits say it made LT pipe covering, cork board with an aluminum foil and asbestos paper laminate covering, "for several years until 1957"; a 1990 EPA notice of what Armstrong World Industries reported gives 1956 to 1959 as the years it was produced with asbestos.⁴ The same answers say that "Beginning about October 1966" Armstrong made Armaspray, "a binder coated mineral fiber insulating material, containing about 9% asbestos"; the 1990 notice gives 1966 to 1968, and an insurer's list says it was "sold solely to AC&S."⁶ In June 1969 Asbestos reported Armaspray in use at Interstate Paper Corporation's new plant at Riceboro, Georgia, on a contract awarded to Armstrong Contracting and Supply Corporation.⁶

Gaskets and sheet materials. In March 1957 Asbestos described Accopac, a new line of asbestos fibre gasketing materials from Armstrong's Industrial Division made by a patented "beater-saturation" process.⁷ Armstrong's 1967 gasket catalog says "Accopac asbestos compositions cost from 15% to 30% less than conventional compressed asbestos" materials, and it describes Accobest AN-8012, a high-density asbestos gasket material, as the first of a new family of heavy-duty asbestos gasket materials; the trademark file gives first use of Accobest AN-8012 in 1966.⁸²⁴ In 1970 the journal announced Accopac AD-8024, "a new, competitively-priced asbestos paper material," and in 1975 it reported a cooling-tower fill made from Armatex, an asbestos-synthetic rubber stock made by Armstrong.²⁵²⁶

Flooring. In 1959 Asbestos described Armstrong's Excelon Tile as a "line of vinyl-asbestos flooring," and an Armstrong Excelon label in the library reads "VINYL PLASTIC ASBESTOS."²⁷⁹ Not every Armstrong floor contained asbestos: in 1942 the journal reported that a new industrial flooring, Traffex, "does not contain asbestos."²⁸

What the documents show

A large fiber buyer. Union Carbide's records of its efforts to sell asbestos fiber show Armstrong as a customer prospect for decades. A June 1959 Union Carbide sales memo on West Coast markets lists Armstrong Cork Company, at South Gate, California, at 2,000 tons a year of Grade 7R fiber and reports that "Armstrong uses several carloads per week" of that grade.²⁹

A 1970 sales call. In October 1970 a Union Carbide salesman called on Armstrong research and purchasing staff to offer asbestos for coatings and mineral wool board.³⁰ His report says that Dwight Browning, Armstrong's assistant director of research, "gave a flat no on asbestos in mineral wool board, for toxicological reasons."³⁰ According to the report, Browning cited lawsuits by members of the Asbestos Workers union against Armstrong and other insulation makers, said Armstrong would not consider new uses for asbestos until those suits were settled unless there was some compelling reason, described precautions at its English plant amounting to protective clothing "similar to space suits," and said the company was concerned about asbestos in its products, "even to the point of dust wearing off vinyl asbestos floor tile."³⁰ The same report records that Browning "agreed that there was much hysteria and over-reaction on the asbestos question," and that he thought asbestos bonded into paints or plastics might be acceptable.³¹

The South Gate floor tile plant. In March 1978 E. R. Evans, Jr., chief chemist at Armstrong's South Gate plant, wrote to Union Carbide that Armstrong had begun buying its SG #103 pelletized asbestos and thanked the company for "helping us when we were no longer able to purchase from Atlas."³² A letter from the plant that month asked Union Carbide for a Material Safety Data Sheet, saying one would now be required "for each of the hazardous raw materials used in the products made at our South Gate Plant."³³ A Union Carbide call report of November 24, 1981, records that 1978 was the last year Union Carbide shipped to the plant, that Armstrong had "just about completed the switch to an asbestos-free formulation," and that Evans said it was "just a question of time before they will be totally asbestos free."³⁴

Armstrong's answers as compiled by Travelers in 1980. In the data sheet The Travelers Insurance Company compiled for a 1980 asbestos seminar from defendants' interrogatory answers, Armstrong said it made LT cork covering and Armaspray at Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, LT from 1956 to 1959 and Armaspray from July 1966 to December 1968, and that it did not mine or mill asbestos.⁴¹ The dates in that section do not agree with each other or with the sworn answers quoted above: a product list written in the company's voice has Armaspray beginning "about July 1966" rather than about October 1966, and the data sheet's own product list gives LT Cork Covering as 1956 to 1960 and Armaspray as July 1966 to July 1969.⁴²⁴¹ The sheet names Armstrong's fiber suppliers as Lake Asbestos of Quebec, Ltd. and North American Asbestos Corporation, gives the end of its amosite supply as the reason the product was discontinued, says Armaspray was sold only to A.C. & S., and says the company had destroyed all records of its sales to co-defendants and to the U.S. Government.⁴³ It gives Armstrong's first knowledge of the hazards as 1968, through the New Yorker article "The Magic Mineral," and says its products were "Never Labeled."⁴³

Lawsuits. Armstrong Cork was one of the six insulation makers held liable in Borel v. Fibreboard Paper Products Corporation, which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed in 1973, holding that makers of asbestos insulation must warn the workers who use it of foreseeable dangers.³⁵ Armstrong's sworn answer describing Armaspray was read into the record at the Borel trial.⁶ In 1977 Union Carbide's law department forwarded to its insurance department a wrongful-death suit against Armstrong Cork Company and others, including Union Carbide, filed in federal court in Miami.³⁶ In DeCosse v. Armstrong Cork Co. (1982) the Minnesota Supreme Court held that the time limit for a wrongful-death claim can be extended if defendants fraudulently concealed the cause of action.³⁷ Our case-law library names Armstrong Cork as a defendant in 20 decisions from 1973 to 1996.³⁸

Bankruptcy and trust

A 1990 EPA notice identifies the company as "Armstrong World Industries, Inc., formerly known as Armstrong Cork Company."⁶ Armstrong World Industries filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2000.¹⁰ Its plan of reorganization was confirmed in 2006, and the Armstrong World Industries, Inc. Asbestos Personal Injury Settlement Trust was established that October with $2.062 billion to pay present and future claims.¹⁰ The company continued in business after the bankruptcy.¹⁰

References

1. Armstrong's Industrial Insulations (1951), ACL Doc 21245, p. 6
2. Asbestos magazine, October 1944, p. 34
3. Asbestos magazine, March 1936, p. 37
4. LT (Armstrong Cork), product page
5. Armstrong's Industrial Insulations (1951), ACL Doc 21245, p. 57
6. Armaspray (Armstrong Cork), product page
7. Asbestos magazine, March 1957, p. 34
8. Armstrong: Gasket Materials (1967), ACL Doc 21267, pp. 3, 5
9. Excelon (Armstrong Cork), product page
10. Armstrong World Industries Asbestos Trust Claims
11. US Patent 1,045,933 (1912), Heat-insulating material and method for manufacturing same
12. Asbestos magazine, July 1931, p. 56
13. Asbestos magazine, May 1943, p. 39
14. Asbestos magazine, June 1949, p. 42
15. Asbestos magazine, July 1951, p. 27
16. Asbestos magazine, July 1963, p. 23
17. Asbestos magazine, December 1963, p. 29
18. Asbestos magazine, December 1957, p. 10
19. Asbestos magazine, April 1960, p. 64
20. Asbestos magazine, December 1969, p. 6
21. Asbestos magazine, March 1973, p. 32
22. Asbestos magazine, March 1978, p. 24
23. Armstrong's Industrial Insulations (1951), ACL Doc 21245, p. 60
24. Accobest AN-8012 (Armstrong Cork), product page
25. Asbestos magazine, August 1970, p. 26
26. Asbestos magazine, August 1975, p. 10
27. Asbestos magazine, March 1959, p. 38
28. Asbestos magazine, December 1942, p. 18
29. Union Carbide exhibit B1-042, T. J. Hall to A. E. Pufahl on West Coast Asbestos Markets, June 15, 1959, pp. 1–2
30. Union Carbide exhibit UC-327, Calidria sales files on Armstrong Cork, 1970 call report, p. 1
31. Union Carbide exhibit UC-327, 1970 call report, p. 2
32. Union Carbide exhibit UC-327, E. R. Evans, Jr., to John L. Myers, March 17, 1978, p. 7
33. Union Carbide exhibit UC-327, Armstrong South Gate plant to T. P. Norris, March 14, 1978, p. 10
34. Union Carbide exhibit UC-327, T. P. Norris call report, November 24, 1981, p. 4
35. Borel v. Fibreboard Paper Products Corporation (5th Cir. 1973)
36. Union Carbide exhibit UC-749, Charles F. Raeburn to R. M. Thode, August 11, 1977
37. DeCosse v. Armstrong Cork Co. (Minnesota Supreme Court, 1982)
38. Armstrong Cork Company, company page
39. Barbara J. Peters and George A. Peters, Sourcebook on Asbestos Diseases: Medical, Legal, and Engineering Aspects, vol. 2 (New York: Garland Law Publishing, 1986), p. 161.
40. Barbara J. Peters and George A. Peters, Sourcebook on Asbestos Diseases: Medical, Legal, and Engineering Aspects, vol. 2 (New York: Garland Law Publishing, 1986), p. 162.
41. Travelers Asbestos Seminar Booklet (1980): Armstrong Cork Company Product Information, p. 4
42. Travelers Asbestos Seminar Booklet (1980): Armstrong Cork Company Product Information, p. 2
43. Travelers Asbestos Seminar Booklet (1980): Armstrong Cork Company Product Information, p. 5

People

People the documents tie to Armstrong Cork Company, most often named first, with the titles the documents give them.

• E. R. Evans, Jr.: Chief Chemist unreviewed

Asbestos trust

If you or a family member worked with or around Armstrong Cork Company's asbestos products and later developed mesothelioma or another asbestos disease, a claim may be paid by the Armstrong World Industries asbestos trust. Free case review.

Asbestos products

59 products our documents name Armstrong Cork Company as making or selling. Each product's page says what the documents say about it, including its asbestos content.

Court cases

20 court decisions in our case-law library name Armstrong Cork Company as a defendant, newest first.

• Viereck v. Fibreboard Corp. (1996)
• Moran v. G. & WH Corson, Inc. (1991)
• Case v. Fibreboard Corp. (1987)
• In re Asbestos Litigation (1987)
• Joyce v. AC and S., Inc. (1986)
• Hobby v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp. (1983)
• Staiano v. Johns-Manville Corp. (1982)
• Wilson v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp. (1982)
• Hardy v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp. (1982)
• Froud v. Celotex Corporation (1982)
• DeCosse v. Armstrong Cork Co. (1982)
• Bertrand v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp. (1982)
• Matter of Steinhardt v. JohnsManville Corp. (1981)
• Hardy v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp. (1981)
• Locke v. Johns-Manville (1981)
• Austin v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp. (1981)
• Neubauer v. Owens-Corning Fiberglas (1981)
• McCarty v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp. (1980)
• Mooney v. Fibreboard Corp. (1980)
• Borel v. Fibreboard Paper Products Corporation (1973)

In our library

2 documents in our library name Armstrong Cork Company, by collection.

Other library documents (2)

• Armstrong's Industrial Insulations (1951) (publisher)
• Armstrong: Gasket Materials (1967) (publisher)

In the Union Carbide documents

Armstrong Cork Company is named in 21 Union Carbide documents dated 1959 to 1983 (1 as recipient, 21 mentioned), from asbestos lawsuits over Union Carbide's Calidria asbestos. All are published in our collection.

• T. J. Hall to Dr. A. E. Pufahl on West Coast Asbestos Markets and Customer Calls (1959) Union Carbide 42 (mentioned)
• Union Carbide Sales Memo on West Coast Asbestos Markets (1959) with Calidria RG-244 Call Reports and Mixing Tests at Reichhold, Jacksonville (1970, 1975) UC-942 (mentioned)
• T. J. Hall to A. E. Pufahl and Others on West Coast Asbestos Markets (1959) UC-2642 (mentioned)
• Progress Report Pages on Coalinga Asbestos Pilot Plant Investment Estimates, Sales Prospects and Bishop Studies (1960) UC-5258 (mentioned)
• M. M. Swetonic (AIA/NA) to Member Companies on the June 22 Meeting about the OSHA Asbestos Standards (1972) UC-5186 (mentioned)
• Users of Asbestos Fibers: Directory of Manufacturers by Product Category (1973) UC-935 (mentioned)
• Users of Asbestos Fibres: Directory of Companies by Product Category (1973) UC-2648 (mentioned)
• North American Asbestos Corporation Transmittal of Textile and Fiber Customer Lists, 1954-1975 (1976) UC-1118 (mentioned)
• Charles F. Raeburn to R. M. Thode Referring the Anzak v. Armstrong Cork Asbestos Lawsuit to the Insurance Department (1977) UC-749 (mentioned)
• Union Carbide Suppliers' Information Form for Pelletized Asbestos Std. Grade 103, Armstrong Cork Co. Spec. No. 105146 (1978) UC-5387 (recipient, mentioned)
• Robert E. Byrne Jr. to E. R. Evans Jr. (Armstrong Cork) Enclosing Specification Form and Material Safety Data Sheet for Calidria Pellets, with Related Armstrong Correspondence (1978) UC-5051 (mentioned)
• T. P. Norris Call Report on Flintkote Co., Vernon, California, on Armstrong SC-103 Shipments (1979) UC-4998 (mentioned)
• Calidria Shipments to UCC Facilities and Customer Ship-To List (GLV, 1980) Union Carbide 538 (mentioned)
• Calidria Shipments to UCC Facilities and Customer Ship-To List (GLV, 1980) UC-245 (mentioned)
• Union Carbide Calidria Customer File on Armstrong Cork, South Gate, CA: 1978 Supply and Specification Correspondence and 1981 Call Report Union Carbide 601 (mentioned)
• T. P. Norris Call Report on Armstrong Cork, South Gate, CA, on Bagging SG-130 in P.E. Bags and Armstrong's Switch to Asbestos-Free Formulation (1981) UC-5050 (mentioned)
• T. P. Norris Call Report on Armstrong Cork, South Gate, CA, on Bagging SG-130 in P.E. Bags (1981) UC-5388 (mentioned)
• T. P. Norris to G. L. Dickson on the SG-100 Product Review for Calidria Asbestos (1983), with Handwritten Cover Note UC-2652 (mentioned)
• Union Carbide Calidria Sales Files on Armstrong Cork Company: 1970 Call Report, 1977 California Asbestos Letter, 1978 Supply Papers, 1981 Call Report UC-327 (mentioned)
• Owens-Corning Fiberglas Invoices for Kaylo Pipe and Block Insulation to Mar Par Insul, Armstrong Cork and Asbestos Contractors, Shipped in Care of Union Carbide, Marietta, Ohio (1959-1967) UC-2055 (mentioned)
• Alphabetical List of Calidria Customer Names and Ship-To Locations, A through Z, with Montello Drilling-Mud Shipments (undated) UC-4115 (mentioned)

Names in the documents

The spellings documents use for Armstrong Cork Company, OCR misreadings included, so a search for any of them finds this page: Armstrong Cork Co · Armstrong Cork.

Where this comes from

This page brings together every document in our library that names Armstrong Cork Company, across collections. Titles and affiliations are taken from the documents themselves, and units and subsidiaries are grouped under the company they belong to.