Shat-R-Shield's history dates back to the late 1960s, when Jim Nolan co-founded a company which provided job-shop plastic-coating services. This company, Incoplas, was involved in coating a variety of items, from fence parts to computer buss-bars. The firm developed an expertise in coating with nylon, epoxy, vinyl and other plastic materials.

The company's extensive experience with plastics led to its involvement with E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. In the early 1970s, the Federal Trade Commission determined that pressurized glass bottles, such as those used to hold carbonated soft drinks, represented a significant hazard to the nation's consumers.

It was possible for those bottles to explode and allow glass to fly about. The DuPont Company offered bottlers a solution. By applying a coating of an ionomer resin to the glass bottles, the hazards of an exploding bottle were effectively neutralized. Incoplas, now Shat-R-Shield, Inc., was one of the companies enlisted to apply the coating.

After many months of research and testing, Shat-R-Shield introduced the first plastic-coated fluorescent lamp. The coating makes the tubes shatterproof, with the coating containing the broken glass, phosphors and mercury if the lamp is broken.

In 1980, Shat-R-Shield began offering Teflon® coated incandescent bulbs. These also were the first of their kind, offered as a superior alternative to silicone-rubber coated bulbs. The shatterproof Teflon coating resists breakage from thermal shocks, is unaffected by chemical contamination, will not deteriorate and will perform reliably at bulb temperatures up to 500°F.

Today Shat-R-Shield is the largest manufacturer of plastic-coated lamps in the world. Considered the leader in the industry, the company continues the research and development of new coatings and coating techniques and targets new markets for its products through extensive advertising and distributor awareness.

Teflon is a registered trademark of E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company used under license.