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Innovation, Inspiration & Ideas

The Nomaco Blog

Welcome to the Nomaco Blog: Sharing Innovation, Inspiration & Ideas!

Are you inspired by stories of innovation and new ideas? We at Nomaco are and we believe that sharing such stories is a great way to stimulate new ways of solving challenges and facilitate more innovative developments. That’s exactly why we’ve created this blog, to share stories and profiles of companies, products and individuals creating innovation in business through inventive material solutions.

We are a company with a rich heritage brimming with stories about disruptive and innovative solutions. One such example of our innovation is the development of an extruded wine closure created to replace natural cork and solve the problem of cork taint.

Gert Noel

Many years ago, Belgian entrepreneur and wine connoisseur Gert Noël was frustrated by the pervasive problem of cork taint, caused by a chemical known as TCA (2,4,6-trichloranisole).  This chemical is produced when chlorophenols in cork-tree bark react with natural fungi or mold. The TCA in the natural cork can then taint the wine.  An estimated 10-15 percent of wines were contaminated with cork taint at that time.  Believing there was a potential solution in extruded foam, in 1993 Gert challenged his son, Marc (founder of Nomaco) to help develop that solution.

The Nomacorc wine closure was initially developed by Nomaco to solve the problem of cork taint in wine. This innovative product led to the establishment of a separate company, Nomacorc LLC.

It took five years of research and development, but Gert and the Nomaco team found the answer in Nomaco’s TuffCoating technology. Utilizing a similar co-extrusion process, the team created a foamed closure with a protective skin on the outside to ease bottle insertion. The product, named Nomacorc, was the first patented, co-extruded wine closure. Nomacorc eliminates the risk of TCA from the wine closure and does not break or crumble.  It is also reusable and recyclable.  The potential for Nomacorc led to the creation of a separate company, Nomacorc LLC, in 1999. To date, Nomacorc has sold more than 20 billion closures worldwide and expanded into oxygen management in wines.

While the development of Nomacorc is just one example, Nomaco excels at developing foam solutions to displace traditional materials.  Over the last four decades, our company has been a leader in the design and extrusion of custom engineered foam products and components for a wide range of markets including construction, insulation, home furnishings, packaging, fitness & recreation and more. We specialize in material development and customized formulations of polyethylene, polypropylene, proprietary blends and hybrid materials.

Material Innovation + Transfoamation

Our extraordinary capabilities allow us to bring innovation to materials where composites of strength and lightweight properties are required. Check out our involvement in the marine industry for examples of how we can solve complex problems requiring what we like to call material transfoamation.

Our solutions have replaced cardboard, fiber, wood, steel and other materials.  We’ve helped customers eliminate weight, packaging, labor and excess materials. We love stories about the creative replacement of materials.

We’ll share some of these stories in future posts on this blog, but we will also feature other companies and products, showcasing how they are using innovation and material replacement to disrupt their industries.  We’ll be looking for the game-changers. If you know of a great story to share, or would like to discuss an opportunity, please contact us.

Who will want to subscribe to our blog?

Product developers, manufacturers, engineers, marketers, and anyone looking for imaginative solutions and disruptive innovations.

If you’re looking for innovation, inspiration and ideas, we hope you’ll come along for the journey and join the conversation.

Sign up for updates from our blog today using the sign up field at the top of this post.

 

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About the Author

Allison Stroud

Allison Stroud is the managing editor of the Innovation, Inspiration & Ideas blog. A 14-year veteran of Nomaco, Allison specializes in marketing communications and serves as the company historian.

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