Industrial tank winders rely on thin polyester film to slide giant fiberglass cylinders off steel molds without sticking. Charles Jason Balkcum, Sales and Operations at Polymer Marketing Inc., explains how his small team supplies custom PET film and Mylar to pipeline builders, chemical tank manufacturers, and niche converters. In this conversation with Carl Holden, Balkcum unpacks how PMI turns rejected off-spec factory runs and small-batch orders into a thriving 40-year supply business.
In this episode:
- Why fiberglass pipe and tank builders must use barrier film around molds to prevent resin from bonding
- How metallized PET film replaces heavy glass mirrors in studios and wedding backdrops
- The origin of Polymer Marketing Inc. taking off-spec DuPont rolls rejected over tiny thickness variations
- Why a lean three-person operation uses a dedicated North Carolina partner for warehouse storage and slitting
- Why walking into a New England engineering room for five minutes closed a deal that months of emails could not
- The simple question distributor reps can ask industrial accounts to uncover hidden Mylar film business
About Charles Jason Balkcum:
Charles Jason Balkcum manages sales and operations at Polymer Marketing Inc., a supplier and custom converter of polyester film headquartered in Evans, Georgia. The company specializes in PET film, commonly known by the trade name Mylar, as well as metallized, clear, translucent, and opaque industrial films. PMI works with partner warehouses to supply converted, slit, and sheeted rolls used as non-stick release barriers for fiberglass composites, oil and gas storage tanks, chemical pipelines, and specialty packaging. Started in 1980 by Balkcum's father and two colleagues from DuPont, PMI has spent over four decades supplying niche manufacturers and distributors whose order sizes or custom requirements fall outside standard mill minimums.
Website:
https://polymermarketinginc.com/
About What's Made in the USA:
What's Made in the USA is hosted by Carl Holden of Zellus Marketing, a technical SEO agency in Huntsville, Alabama that gets American manufacturers ranking on Google and AI search for the exact products they make. Each episode is a conversation with an owner or operator about what their company makes, how they make it, and how they built the business behind it. https://whatismadeintheusapodcast.com https://www.zellusmarketing.com
Subscribe to What's Made in the USA to hear real manufacturing operators break down their processes and supply chains.
Topics covered:
polyester film, PET film, Mylar, barrier film, fiberglass composites, metallized film, slitting and converting, industrial supply
Chapters:
0:00 Supplying polyester film to manufacturers
2:03 How fiberglass tank builders use barrier film
4:42 Metallized films and lightweight mirror applications
8:14 Starting PMI from DuPont off-spec rolls
13:10 Operating lean with a North Carolina slitting partner
15:29 Distributor partnerships and in-person technical sales
24:53 Finding real manufacturers versus warehouse distributors
38:02 Marketing advice and using AI to qualify buyers
