Please search for companies which manufacture and supply 'Carbon
Microspheres'.
E mail their web site and ask if they can supply these materials to a
genuine business contact looking for a source of supply to manufacture
sealing materials.  If they reply that they can offer such materials,
advise their contact information to the navigator.

Thank you for your question. Carbon microspheres are an interesting
high-tech product and I hope your application turns out well.

Anyway, here are the results of my web search. The best (and only)
company for your needs appears to be:

-------------------
DESTECH CORPORATION
------------------
Main URL: http://www.industrial-materials.com/gcpwder.htm and
Microspheres URL: http://www.industrial-materials.com/gcpwder.htm and

The cost is $60.00 for 21+ pounds. The density is .884g/cm3. 

1664 S. Research Loop, Suite 200
Tucson, AZ 85710

Phone: 520-290-2859
Fax: 520-290-9321

Contact: Richard McCormick

I spoke with Mr. McCormick on the phone and he indicated that, as far
as he knew, Destech was the only company manufacturing carbon
microspheres commercially. He indicated that there are was one other
company, Vesar, that used to make them but no longer does. He seemed
knowledgable about the product, and I recommend contacting him.

Another related company is:

------
POWDERMET INC.
------

My initial web search turned up this company,

URL: http://www.powdermetinc.com
Microspheres: http://www.powdermetinc.com/fillers.htm

Address:

9960 Glenoaks Blvd, Unit A
Sun Valley, CA 91352
Phone: 818-768-6420
Fax: 818-768-6012

email: powdermet@earthlink.net


I called PowderMet at their main number, and they indicated that what
they do is COAT carbon microspheres. So if you are interested in
coating your spheres, these are the ones to go to.

They vend:

1-0015 Aluminum Coated Carbon Microspheres
 Aluminum coating on 100 micron carbon microballoons
 Metallic appearing free-flowing powder
 .3g/cc (powder), .1g/cc (tap)
   Available in 200g, 500Kg, 1Kg

Contact information:

Other:
 Dean Baker
 818-768-6420
 powdermetinc@earthlink.com

SEARCH STRATEGY
--------------

I initially searched using keywords of 

carbon microspheres 

Most of the links were for research applications: .gov and .edu sites,
for example.

I then found the Powdermet Inc. web site, and I phoned them to verify
that they did vend carbon microspheres.

The person I spoke to at PowderMet indicated that they purchased their
spheres from Destech. I called Destech, and was referred to Mr.
McCormick, who apparently is their microsphere specialist.

I had a long conversation with Mr. McCormick regarding microspheres,
their applications, and their market (which apparently isn't so great,
by the way). He indicated he would be the appropriate contact for
further purchase information.


In addition, I used a common searching tricks, using the google
toolbar here: http://toolbar.google.com/ , a browser plug-in that
simplifies searches.

I wanted to get a "directory" of companies that produced microspheres,
given the name of a single company. To do this, once I am at the main
web page of a company, I click on "backward links" which tells me
sites pointing to that web site.

Both the web search and the phone conversation confirmed the
information above: there just aren't many companies that make carbon
microspheres.

I also found one more general list of companies that supply
"miscellaneous materials" at E-composites.com:
http://www.e-composites.com/commonfiles/miscelmatl.asp

There are, of course, some companies that make microspheres out of
materials other than carbon, such as Polysciences
http://www.polysciences.com/shop/product.asp?dept%5Fid=400010&pf%5Fid=19406
, but they do not vend carbon microspheres.

As always, if you would like any further information or have any
questions, please use the "Request Clarification" button on the
browser before rating the answer.

---

Request for Answer Clarification by navigator-ga on 18 Nov 2002 04:29 PST

Hello rbnn,

This is not really a clarification as we were very happy with the
information on Destech.  Now you are started on this could we offer
you US$ 80 to trace the source of the precursor phenolic microspheres
which Destech use?

Is there a way to do this within the Google system or do I post a new
question?

regards,

Navigator

---

Clarification of Answer by rbnn-ga on 18 Nov 2002 06:53 PST

Thank you for your kind comments; they are appreciated.

There is no way within the google system to add additional moneys onto
this question; instead, posting a new question is necessary.

It is possible to request a particular answerer by mentioning that
answerer's handle in the subject of the question. However, in this
case I do not recommend this approach, because I have no special
expertise or knowledge in the field, and there are other researchers
who could research this question at least as well as I, and in fact I
doubt I could answer it anyway.

The problem is that the question of a specific supplier to a company
might be proprietary information, which means we could not post it
anyway.

Therefore, I would recommend first contacting Destech directly at the
contact information given above, rather than posting a new question.

Of course, there is no harm in posting the question anyway and seeing
what happens, as you can always just request a refund if you don't get
an answer or don't like the answer.

If you do decide to post a new question, you might want to provide a
link to this question (reference ID 99447) in the new question, so
that other researchers can find it easily.