{"id":29452,"date":"2017-04-07T13:44:34","date_gmt":"2017-04-07T17:44:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/?p=29452"},"modified":"2017-04-07T13:46:14","modified_gmt":"2017-04-07T17:46:14","slug":"business-grows-making-insulation-homes-important-maritime-industry-uses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2017\/04\/business-grows-making-insulation-homes-important-maritime-industry-uses\/","title":{"rendered":"Business Grows From Making Insulation For Homes To Important Maritime Industry Uses"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_29529\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-29529\" style=\"width: 850px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-29529\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2017\/04\/tom-eletto-hcw.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"850\" height=\"629\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2017\/04\/tom-eletto-hcw.jpg 850w, https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2017\/04\/tom-eletto-hcw-300x222.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2017\/04\/tom-eletto-hcw-768x568.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 850px) 100vw, 850px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-29529\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tom Eletto, with his wife, Cynthia, owns Empire Foam Solutions.<br \/>\u00a92017 Saratoga Photographer.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">By Maureen Werther<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Tom and Cynthia Eletto\u2019s company, Empire Foam Solutions, gives new meaning to the phrase, \u201ca rising tide lifts all boats.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Founded in 2008, the company began manufacturing and installing polyurethane foam as insulation in commercial buildings and residences.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">However, as an entrepreneur Tom soon began \u201ctweaking\u201d his manufacturing formulations and developed an ultra-high density foam that is resistant to water, making it a valuable product for the maritime industry. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Large boats and barges\u2014many of them up to 300 feet in length\u2014can\u2019t simply be lifted out of the water and re-welded when they begin to rust and deteriorate from age. By analyzing each problem as it arises, Eletto develops solutions that will keep large boats and barges afloat, he said. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Today, Empire Foam Solutions is busy installing high density foam as flotation on barges in several locations, said Eletto. Winning a bid to install foam as flotation on barges working on the Erie and Champlain systems for the state Division of Canals back in 2012 launched the company into the maritime market. They have stabilized vessels in Boston, Rhode Island, Peoria and St. Louis and opportunities are percolating across the country.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\"><!--more-->According to Eletto, the company just completed a big project in Fort McMurray, Canada, for Syncrude Canada Ltd., one of the world\u2019s largest producers of synthetic crude oil from oil sands and the largest single-source producer in Canada.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cThey had a barge that was about to capsize in the middle of a pristine lake. This barge was an essential component for a work community of 20,000. All of the water pumps and storage tanks for the population\u2019s water supply were located on that barge,\u201d said Eletto.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">His crew first plugged the leaks and stabilized the bottom of the barge from the inside, and coated the entire interior of the barge with a food-grade polyurea and then used a 2.8 pounds-per-cubic-foot density foam to buoy the barge and prevent it from capsizing and causing significant environmental damage to<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>the lake.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Empire Foam Solutions is based in Saratoga Springs, with a manufacturing facility in nearby Schenectady. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Today, in addition to commercial and residential buildings projects, Eletto has two crews trained in barge remediation. The company also has a patent pending on its new low-cost spray foam machine, called the M-Power System. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Eletto said he invented the machine himself and calls it a \u201ccool innovation,\u201d as well as being one of the lowest priced, high-capacity machines in the industry.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cWe have already sold a few prototypes and, once we have our patent, we will begin to sell them commercially,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Building boats was a childhood hobby for Eletto, but he did not begin his career in the foam insulation and maritime industries. He worked for Blue Cross\u2013Blue Shield of Northeastern NY and then with General Electric Power Systems in software development. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">After leaving GE in 1998, Eletto went into residential home building, focusing on making homes as energy efficient as possible. In the process, he became interested in the \u201cchemistry\u201d of making polyurethane foam. He spent the next two years researching and learning about it, often partnering with other chemists and developing his own formulations. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Ultimately, he and his wife Cynthia, who is the company\u2019s CFO, made the decision to manufacture it themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Eletto is optimistic about the future of Empire Foam Solutions and is eager to expand into other regional markets with both the high-density maritime polyurethane product, as well as the M-Power foam-spraying machine.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Maureen Werther Tom and Cynthia Eletto\u2019s company, Empire Foam Solutions, gives new meaning to the phrase, \u201ca rising tide lifts all boats.\u201d Founded in 2008, the company began manufacturing and installing polyurethane foam as insulation in commercial buildings and residences. However, as an entrepreneur Tom soon began \u201ctweaking\u201d his manufacturing formulations and developed an [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":29529,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entrepreneurship"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>Business Grows From Making Insulation For Homes To Important Maritime Industry Uses - Saratoga Business Journal<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2017\/04\/business-grows-making-insulation-homes-important-maritime-industry-uses\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Business Grows From Making Insulation For Homes To Important Maritime Industry Uses - Saratoga Business Journal\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Maureen Werther Tom and Cynthia Eletto\u2019s company, Empire Foam Solutions, gives new meaning to the phrase, \u201ca rising tide lifts all boats.\u201d Founded in 2008, the company began manufacturing and installing polyurethane foam as insulation in commercial buildings and residences. 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