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Saint-Gobain Proppants -
Company Overview
5300 Gerber Rd.
Fort Smith, AR 72904
479-782-2001
800-643-2149
Fax: 479-782-9984
The History of Saint-Gobain Proppants
Norton
The Norton Story: A 100-year journey from pottery to proppants.
Norton developed its first man-made proppant product – a Sintered Bauxite sphere that allowed greater operating depth and greater economic return than conventional sand proppant – in 1973, at the request of Exxon Corporation.
The company's experience with highly processed, naturally occurring base materials dates back more than 100 years, to the F.B. Norton Pottery Shop in Worcester, Massachusetts. Originally, F.B. Norton manufactured industrial pottery, later developing the first precision-made and mass-produced grinding wheels for industrial applications. The pottery shop changed its name to the Norton Company and rapidly became a diversified, multinational industrial manufacturer.
Norton evolved into the world’s largest manufacturer of abrasives for industry, producing grinding wheels, diamond products, loose grain and sandpaper. This evolution soon allowed the company to take a leadership role in the development and manufacture of industrial ceramics.
That’s why when the call came from Exxon, Norton was ready. The original Sintered Bauxite proppant went into full commercial production in 1977 and generated such demand that Norton opted to build a manufacturing facility in Fort Smith, Arkansas, dedicated solely to its production. This plant opened in 1979. In 1984, Norton Company formed a joint venture partnership with Alcoa, its original bauxite supplier and a ceramics innovator in its own right, and soon expanded the Fort Smith facility to triple production capacity.
Five years later, in 1989, Norton Company was acquired by Saint-Gobain, a worldwide leader in industrial ceramics, plastics and glass. This new association provided Norton with access to the worldwide resources of one of the world’s one hundred largest industrial corporations. Alcoa sold its interests to Saint-Gobain in 2001, and on March 30 of that year Norton-Alcoa Proppants became Norton Proppants, Inc.
In October 2004, Norton Proppants changed its name to Saint-Gobain Proppants in order to highlight the expertise of parent company Saint-Gobain in the development and manufacture of ceramic materials. The new name also reflects the company’s focus on global markets, and its ongoing efforts to respond to increasing industry demand. Saint-Gobain Proppants has completed several significant expansion projects in recent years – including acquisition of a manufacturing plant in Guanghan, China, to serve growing markets for proppants in China, Russia and southeast Asia – and is continuing to increase production capacity through additional expansion efforts.
Saint-Gobain
Compagnie de Saint-Gobain is a materials company with a distinguished history. It was founded more than 300 years ago and has since flourished as one of the world’s top industrial corporations, with the single purpose of serving the customer through a commitment to quality and leadership. Saint-Gobain operates in more than 50 countries, employing over 200,000 people in five major business sectors: Flat Glass, Packaging, Construction Products, Building Distribution and High-Performance Materials. Saint-Gobain Proppants is a business unit in the High-Performance Materials sector.
Learn more about Saint-Gobain at www.saint-gobain.com
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