Union Asbestos & Rubber Co. / Pittsburgh Corning Corporation plant at Tyler, Texas

In January 1955, an item from the Union Asbestos & Rubber Company in Asbestos, the industry's trade journal, said that "Unarco acquired the new Texas facility last August to replace the company's McGregor, Texas, plant, which was taken over by the government."¹ The same item reported that the new Tyler, Texas, plant "started production of Unibestos pipe insulation on December 31, 1954."¹ The plant later passed to Pittsburgh Corning Corporation, which made Unibestos and, by its own sworn account, stopped making it in early 1972.²

What the plant made

The sources name one product at Tyler, Unibestos, a pipe insulation; the Navy's list of qualified products named Tyler as a plant for Union Asbestos's Unibestos in November 1956.⁵ Unarco Industries' later answers in a lawsuit describe Unibestos, in general and not Tyler's output in particular, as "composed of amosite asbestos fiber bound with a silicious material (diatamaceous earth)."⁷ Pittsburgh Corning, announcing in November 1963 that "Unibestos is manufactured in Tyler, Texas," wrote that the amosite it used was imported from South Africa and "produced by the facilities of The Cape Asbestos Company Limited."⁴

The change of owner

The 1962 purchase agreement between the two companies defined the "Tyler plant" as Union's plant "at or near Tyler, Smith County, Texas, where UNION manufactures the H-T product," and said Union wished to part with "its plant and facilities for the manufacture of such product."⁶ The sources date the change differently. Pittsburgh Corning's sworn answers in 1984 say it first made Unibestos "on July 1, 1962," the day it "purchased selected assets and facilities" from Union Asbestos; other Pittsburgh Corning papers say "Since August, 1962."^2,8 Unarco Industries' answers say Unibestos was "discontinued in 1963," when the line passed to Pittsburgh Corning.⁷ The Navy's list in August 1962 named Tyler as the plant for Unibestos under Pittsburgh Corning.⁵

How it ended

Pittsburgh Corning's 1984 answers say the decision to close its asbestos insulation plants was made in the latter half of 1971, and that it "permanently ceased production of UNIBESTOS on approximately February 1, 1972."² In April 1977, Asbestos reported on a University of Texas program in Tyler following "approximately 672 former workers" of the plant, "formerly operated by Pittsburgh-Corning Corporation," who were having physical examinations twice a year; "the plant was closed in 1972."³

Location

Pictures of products made here

Labels, packages, photographs and catalog pages from our library of products documents say were made at this plant. Each picture has its own page and library number.

• Product photograph: UNIBESTOS PIPE INSULATION (UNARCO)Unibestos (Union Asbestos & Rubber Co.)Product photograph · ACL Doc 15189
• Product photograph: UNIBESTOS (Pittsburgh Corning)Unibestos (Pittsburg Corning)Product photograph · ACL Doc 15188

Asbestos products made here

The products documents say were made at this plant, with the years a document gives for the product here. Each product's page has what the documents say about it, including its asbestos content.

• Unibestos (Pittsburg Corning)^4,5
• Unibestos (Union Asbestos & Rubber Co.)^5,6

Asbestos claims

If you or a family member worked at this plant, lived with someone who did, or worked with its products, and later developed mesothelioma or another asbestos disease, a claim may be paid by the Pittsburgh Corning Corporation Asbestos PI Settlement Trust. Free case review.

What each document says

Every statement about this plant in the documents, in each document's own words.

Other names

Documents call this plant “Tyler, Texas”, “Tyler plant”, “Tyler, Smith County, Texas”.

See also

• Union Asbestos & Rubber Co.: the company's history, documents, people, products and plants
• Pittsburgh Corning Corporation: the company's history, documents, people, products and plants
• Asbestos exposure sites in Texas

References

1. Asbestos Magazine, 1955, January 1955 (January 1, 1955), p. 46.
2. Pittsburgh Corning's Responses to Plaintiffs' Master Interrogatories in the Sparrows Point Steel Plant Asbestos Cases (June 6, 1984), pp. 6, 8.
3. Asbestos Magazine, 1977, April 1977 (April 1, 1977), p. 19.
4. Asbestos Magazine, 1963, November 1963 (November 1, 1963), p. 11.
5. Military Qualified Products List (1951–1995) (August 16, 1962), pp. 30, 79.
6. The Tomplait v. Combustion Engineering Case File (1962-1969), Answers to plaintiff's third interrogatories with exhibits (June 30, 1962), pp. 3–4.
7. The Borel v. Fibreboard Case File (1969-1972), Answers to interrogatories (April 1, 1970), p. 1.
8. The Borel v. Fibreboard Case File (1969-1972), Supplemental answers to interrogatories (January 29, 1971), p. 1.