CCG Delivers OEM Partnership for Industry Leader

Tower Tech chose composites for their cooling tower design to avoid the common problems of wood (rot, mold and bacterial growth) and metal (corrosion and Legionella risks) towers. Fiberglass and Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) provide the structural integrity and strength of metal but with the flexibility of wood – and at a much lighter weight than either and with innate corrosion resistance.

But Tower Tech knew that molded and hand-laid-up fiberglass, though readily available at the time, could not meet the tight tolerances, consistent quality, and long-term integrity the company required. That meant Tower Tech needed pultrusion, which can produce long, strong spans and widths that have the flexibility to handle the natural expansion and contraction of cooling towers without requiring internal support components. This was not a commodity in the early 1990s, and only manufacturers with the strictest tolerances could pultrude these larger shapes at an acceptable speed with predicably high standards of quality.

Three companies tried to create what Tower Tech needed. Two of these fiberglass partners couldn’t afford to continue the expense of trying to produce such a complicated piece with a high risk of poor results and so much raw waste. Many more companies were approached but weren’t even willing to try.

One of the three “finalist” companies was Creative Pultrusions, now part of CCG. Tower Tech had an existing relationship with Creative Pultrusions to produce other, custom shapes, including the highly complex, bespoke basin channel. Creative Pultrusions had never attempted to tackle something like the wall spans, even with their history of creating technically complicated shapes and profiles. But they were excited to learn together with Tower Tech by taking on this challenge.

Creative Pultrusions proved they were up to the challenge. Their years of experience and industry-leading pultruded shapes meant they perfected the design for Tower Tech in minimal time. Tower Tech president Mathu Solo recalls, “Because they innovated to provide such high quality for the complicated parts, we knew we could trust them with the simple ones too. Our ideal partner would have the expertise to produce our most complicated components, and only then would we trust them to manage all our components.”

Creative Pultrusions proved they were that ideal partner. Creative Pultrusions went beyond solving Tower Tech’s specific challenge: They also developed the technology to produce larger, longer panels than they’d ever had before. These innovations allowed Tower Tech to grow the business into larger model sizes for the industry. Both U.S.-based companies prioritized in-person collaboration to work through some of the complexities of the new technology – no expensive business trips or laborious conference calls and back-and-forth faxes of internationally located companies. It also let Tower Tech maintain its commitment to being 100% Made in the USA.

“Businesses are people more than products,” Solo said. “When you look at what makes a company successful, it really comes down to your employees and to your partners. In Creative Pultrusions, we found a relationship that have proved valuable to our business and that have stood the test of time. Many of the same people who helped us figure out our tower wall 20 years ago are still with the company. With CCG, you're not just going to get what you need; you're going to get a relationship that will grow with you and help you continue to get better.”

And get better they have: The relationship between Tower Tech and Creative Pultrusions flourished across three decades, and in the 2010s, the companies formally joined under the Creative Composites Group family. Recalls Mathu Solo: “I look back at where Tower Tech and Creative Pultrusions were, and it’s been so fun. We were two, family-run businesses that grew to be something more than that. Working together, we forged a partnership as inherently stable as the products produced.”