SOLANA BEACH – Surface Tech President Steve Santa Cruz sat in an office in the company’s Solana Beach headquarters and held what looked like a flimsy, thin yellow stick a little over an inch long.
The little stick pulled apart easily, revealing a thin web of interlocking fibers. Admittedly, the company’s product may not look very intimidating, but it has a surprising strength and has propelled Surface Tech into a significant player in a global market.
President
Surface Tech
“This is a wax coating that basically controls the aramid fiber into the mix,” Santa Cruz said as he pulled the stick apart. “This is what actually goes into the asphalt, this hair material.”
The strong fibers are similar to Kevlar, the product used in modern body armor.
“You can say we’re bulletproofing our asphalt,” Santa Cruz said.
The synthetic material, technically a para-aramid fiber, creates a matrix that works with the asphalt binder called bitumen to create a stronger base that protects against cracking and rutting.
The fibers are sold to asphalt producers that add them to their product at a ratio of 2.1 ounces for each ton of asphalt.
That small dose contains millions of fibers that can double the life of an asphalt project, said Surface Tech Chief Marketing Officer Jason Martin.
The additive increases the cost of a project by 7 to 10%, he said.
“When you consider doubling the life of your asset, if you’re a private parking lot owner or a city or county and delaying and deferring maintenance, the long-term savings is considerable,” Martin said.
That alone can be a selling point for customers, and Martin noted that the truck stop Love’s uses a double-dose of their product because of the high traffic and heavy weight they experience daily.
Other selling points are its sustainability and environmentally sensitive aspects of the product.
Hitting the Road
Surface Tech was launched in 2013 by Nick Slinde, who at the time was an attorney who owned a law firm in Portland, Oregon. During his legal work, Slinde learned about a company selling aramid into the market and realized that as the only company working with fibers in asphalt, he saw an opportunity for competition.
“He realized at that time that there is a better way to propagate the product into the marketplace,” Santa Cruz said. ”He put resources together to make that happen
“Nick is not an engineer,” Santa Cruz continued. “He is more of an entrepreneur. Nick likes to put people together and resources together for a particular application.”
Surface Tech was launched with a $1 million fundraiser, followed in 2018 with a second $1.5 million fundraiser.
There are still only the two competing companies in the field, and Santa Cruz said Surface Tech uses a patented technique and coats its fibers to control it as it is mixed with asphalt.
As Martin explained, a wax coating is used in larger mixes and a liquid emulsion is used in smaller batches to ensure the fibers are evenly dissipated.
Santa Cruz said the asphalt and paving industry has been reluctant to adopt new ways, but things have changed in the past decade because of raw material degradations, new sustainability requirements, local and federal mandates and taxpayer unrest.
“The journey remains tough, but we have managed to become in this short timeframe a real option for the industry,” he said.
About 500 million tons of asphalt are laid in the U.S. annually, and through 2023, 8 million contain Surface Tech fibers, Santa Cruz said.
Global Growth
Santa Cruz was hired as president in 2015, and the company moved its headquarters from Portland to La Jolla in 2017. In January, they relocated to Cedros Avenue in Solana Beach.
The products are manufactured in Chicago, with distribution sites in Oceanside and Cincinnati.
The company has clients throughout the United States and in Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand, and it is moving into the United Kingdom, Germany, Ecuador, Peru and Chile.
The company doubled in size in its first four years and has grown by 20% annually since 2018.
Locally, the product has been used in roads throughout San Diego County and in the city of San Diego. A stretch of road on Harbor Drive near the airport was laid in 2020 and still has no cracks, Santa Cruz said.
The company also has worked with the cities of Encinitas, Escondido and Vista.
Surface Tech
FOUNDED: Nick Slinde
HEADQUARTERS: Solana Beach
BUSINESS: Asphalt additive
FOUNDER: Nick Slinde
EMPLOYEES: 25 in North America
WEBSITE: https://surface-tech.com
CONTACT: (619) 880-0265
SOCIAL IMPACT: Surface Tech’s technology makes road pavements last longer, reducing repair cost in the long run, and asphalt manufacturing with their product uses less oil.
NOTABLE: The company grew 100% annually in its first few years and now is a global competitor.
