York inventor secures patent for concrete sealer
For years, Michael Leaman has been obsessed with a problem most people probably don’t think much about.
The problem, Leaman said, is that concrete tends to deteriorate as it loses its water content over time.
As the owner of Total Asphalt, a pavement consulting and maintenance company at 66 Murray Place in York, Leaman was accustomed to thinking about surfaces used for walking and driving.
He had developed a product to extend the life of asphalt, and he was marketing that product when he recognized a need for alternatives to the epoxies used to coat the exterior of concrete.
Rather than coating concrete with epoxy, a process Leaman said comes with problems of its own, he came up with a copolymer formula that binds with the concrete at the molecular level to prevent water vapor from escaping it.
Now, Uniseal Solutions, a company he founded, has an exclusive deal to distribute the new product.
Leaman, a York native, has no chemistry degree or formal science training. But that didn’t stop him from developing a product that he thinks will change the way the construction industry will treat concrete.
“It’s a miracle,” Leaman said. “When I realized what I had, I sat on my back deck looking at the stars, smoking cigars for three days.”
Leaman enlisted veteran chemist Arnold Rosenberg to work with him on developing the formula. Rosenberg said there wasn’t necessarily anything wrong with epoxy coatings, but their product would be cheaper, thinner and would last longer.
Source: http://www.ydr.com/business/ci_27974409/york-inventor-secures-patent-concrete-sealer