"CEREMET
PRODUCTS"
INDUSTRIAL - MINERALS - CHEMICALS
TOOLS AND SUPPLIES
Ceramic and Metallurgical Engineering Service
204 West Fourth Street
P.O. Box 1151
Jamestown, NY 14702-1151
Phone: (716) 664-5315
Fax: (716) 664-1165
E-mail: sales@weavermateriel.com
Contact Us
We accept:
Companies
Represented
- Foundry Consumables
-
Industrial Tools and Supplies
FOUNDRY EQUIPMENT DIVISION
204 West Fourth Street
P.O. Box 1161
Jamestown, NY 14702-1161
Phone: (716) 664-9485
Fax: (716) 664-1165
E-mail: sales@indquip.com
Contact Us
WEAVER MATERIEL SERVICE, INC.
“A BRIEF HISTORY”
1944 - PRESENT
By Don S. Weaver, Sr.
(Revised April
2001)
Weaver Materiel Service was
founded in June of 1944 by Fred L. Weaver, Sr. Fred’s foundry career included
10 years as Technical Superintendent of American Standard’s “Bond Plant” in
Buffalo, NY. His duties included supervision of sand control, the chemistry lab
and the melting of 300 tons per day of grey iron for the production of boilers
and radiators.
In 1934, he moved his wife and four children to Detroit where he became Service
Metallurgist for The Great Lakes Foundry Sand Company. Fred liked the traveling
associated with his position and recognized that he was readily accepted by the
industry for his knowledge and ability to solve casting problems. It was here,
in Detroit, that his youngest son, Don, received his introduction to foundry
sand by accompanying Dad on Saturdays to run sand tests in the lab.
The foundry industry was booming during the height of World War II. This was
an excellent time to fulfill his desire to start his own foundry supply
business. So, at age 46, Fred moved his family back home to Buffalo and started
Weaver Materiel. He had a flare for words and capitalized on the military
spelling of “Materiel” associated with the tremendous, ongoing war effort. The
first company Weaver Materiel represented was the Wedron Silica Company in
Wedron, IL.
In 1952, Fred and his wife Betty, who handled all of the office work, moved
from Buffalo to their summer home on Chautauqua Lake and the office was
relocated to Jamestown, New York. During the first eight years of business,
Fred realized that there was a missing link between metallurgy and ceramics.
Many metallurgists were using ceramic materials, i.e., refractories, and
coatings, about which they knew very little. Likewise, ceramic engineers were
designing materials for the hot metal industry with little knowledge of
metallurgy. It was on this premise that he prevailed upon Don to obtain a
degree in Ceramic Engineering. After graduation from Alfred University in 1957
and a tour in the Army as an artillery officer, Don joined the company in
January of 1958.
In 1960, the company was incorporated and began to grow by the addition of more
foundry materials such as no-bake binders, ceramic tile, core and mold coatings,
and equipment. Betty retired in 1968 and a new position was created, now known
as Accounting Manager, with responsibilities that include Accounts Receivables
and Payables. Fred retired in 1969 after 25 years of growth and Don became
President and CEO.
Don, Jr. followed in
his father’s footsteps by earning a degree in Ceramic Engineering from Alfred in
1983. He came to work for the company immediately as a Technical Sales
Representative. After many years of learning the territory, ‘Dean’, as he
is known, was promoted to Vice President and Sales/Marketing Manager. With
Don Sr. entering “semi-retirement” in 1999, Dean has become the third generation
President and CEO and Don Sr. is now Chairman of the Board. Careful
business continuation planning has provided a long-term outlook for our
principals.
Dean had not been with the company long before it was obvious that more help
was needed in the office. In 1985 the position of Customer Service Manager was
created to deal directly with our customers and principals. The last several
years have been an exciting and important period in the growth of Weaver
Materiel. A state-of-the-art IBM AS/400 computer system has been installed
dealing with all phases of the business, but most importantly in the area of
order entry. We have also secured warehouse space in Buffalo and Syracuse, NY,
Erie, Blairsville and Reading, PA and Holyoke, MA to better serve our customers
and relieve our sources from LTL shipments. Two sand transloading operations
have also been implemented, enabling us capture additional market share in New
England.
Doug Klosen joined Weaver Materiel in 1994 as our Technical Sales
Representative in Eastern New York and New England. Doug, also a Ceramic
Engineer, came to us with over 25 years of experience in the electric furnace
refractory and ceramic industry. Doug also covers a portion of our recently
acquired Eastern Pennsylvania territory concentrating in the northeast counties
of Pennsylvania and areas of New Jersey and Delaware.
Mike Anthony joined our Foundry Sales Staff in July 1997. He is a metallurgist
from the University of Pittsburgh and lives in New Castle, PA. He spent several
years traveling the East Coast from Maine to Virginia for Ajax Magnethermics.
Mike is responsible for Western and Southeastern Pennsylvania as well as
portions of Maryland and West Virginia.
Dave Stimson is our most recent addition to our sales staff beginning in
October of 1999. Dave has over 20 years of foundry experience including ferrous
and non-ferrous operations; no-bake and green sand molding as well as casting
sales. Dave is responsible for the majority of New York State, and the northern
half of Pennsylvania.
With the large and rapid expansion of the sales staff it soon became apparent
that more inside support staff was needed. In 1999 a new position of Sales,
Marketing and Administrative Assistant was created to serve the increasing needs
of the sales force.
The companies we represent who comprise the major portion of our business
include Fairmount Minerals (whose Wedron Silica Division we have represented for
55 years), Foseco, Inc., United Erie, American Minerals and Industrial Ceramic
Products.
An interesting sidelight to our business has been the turf industry. We began selling Best Sand (a division of Fairmount Minerals) bunker sand to golf courses several years ago. Since then, Fairmount acquired 50% ownership of the D. M. Boyd Company who produce top dressings and construction mixes. In order to market our turf products more effectively, in January of 2005, we began selling our turf products under the name of Weaver Golf & Turf Solution. Please visit our website at www.weavergolf.com for our complete line of turf industry products.
All of us at Weaver Materiel are proud of our long and enviable reputation of representing the highest quality companies and products in the industry. We are also proud of our Customer Service and our ability of enhance our customer’s market position and profitability by solving their problems with a competent, dedicated Sales and Office staff.