RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM Unsatisfied with available products, Kailua inventor Bruce Huddleston set out to create his own corrosion fighter. His formula, TC-11, is now available in Hardware Hawaii Ace stores. The label evolved, from left, to its current design at right.

Kailua inventor Bruce Huddleston
wants to be in a hardware store near you

---

By Lyn Danninger
ldanninger@starbulletin.com

Living close to the ocean is both a blessing and a curse. As idyllic as a beachfront location can be, it doesn't take long for everything steel to begin to rust.

But a local inventor is pitching a product he says will prevent the problem from starting.

"In Hawaii, everything rusts," said Kailua resident Bruce Huddleston, who initially developed the product -- called TC-11 -- to combat corrosion on his personal watercraft.

Huddleston, who graduated from Iolani School and the University of Hawaii, had tried a variety of anti-corrosion products on his watercraft over the years. Most either didn't last or left a waxy film, he said.

A retired Rockwell International thermodynamics test engineer, Huddleston worked on a variety of projects during his career, including the space shuttle. He also worked as a senior environmental engineer for companies such as Mobil and Unocal.

But with a three-day sailing trip planned while living in California, Huddleston needed a way to protect two new personal watercraft that were to be towed behind the boat. He decided to make his own anti-corrosive concoction to protect the small craft.

RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM Kailua inventor Bruce Huddleston used his roof to test his anti-corrosion product TC-11 against other products. Huddleston is trying to get his product into national stores.

The success of the mixture in protecting the watercraft without evaporating or leaving a film started Huddleston, who already owned patents for combustion, heat transfer and mechanical devices, thinking about commercial applications.

After moving back to Hawaii in 1996 and starting his own environmental business, Huddleston continued testing and improving his product.

He found the mixture worked well at home on sliding doors, hinges, lawn mowers, bicycles, door locks, even the undercarriage of a car.

Huddleston said the name TC stands for "total control" and 11 is the number of the formula.

The product has three basic functions: to act as a penetrant, lubricant and a corrosion inhibitor, he said.

Light applications last for weeks to months; heavy applications last from months to years, according to Huddleston.

"Lubrication, corrosion control and penetration are all a function of having a reducing hydrocarbon film between metal equipment surfaces and the oxygen in the atmosphere," he said.

In other words, TC-11 cuts off the supply of oxygen, thereby eliminating the condition that will eventually lead to corrosion.

Where there is rust or corrosion, TC-11 stops the process. The product also acts as a lubricant without attacking paint, rubber or plastic, he said.

A drawback to TC-11, like other products in its category, is that it can accumulate salt and dirt, Huddleston said. That's why washing down equipment is an integral part of using it, he said.

After building a model to demonstrate TC-11 in action, Huddleston got his first test customers last year -- local heavy equipment dealers for Case Equipment, John Deere and Caterpillar.

The dealers, who ship machinery to Hawaii from the West Coast, found that when the equipment arrived in Hawaii after 16 days at sea there was corrosion and peeling -- the conditions that will expose metal to eventual rust.

Ralph Crommett, the Case dealer in Kona on the Big Island, was one of those who tried TC-11 on equipment he brought in from the West Coast. Crommett said his employees would spend hours preparing machines and getting rid of the corrosion that started on the trip over.

Huddleston guaranteed Crommett that with a coating of TC-11, the new equipment would arrive corrosion-free because the metal would no longer be exposed to corrosion-creating salt air and sun.

Before putting the machines on the barges bound for Hawaii, the company asked the shipper to spray the machines with a thin coating of TC-11.

When equipment arrived, Crommett was impressed.

"Our machines used to arrive with a surprising amount of corrosion for new equipment," he said. "Since we started using TC-11, the new machines arrive 100 percent corrosion-free," he said.

After unloading the machinery at its final destination, 10 minutes with a pressure washer will leave the equipment looking like it just arrived from the factory, Huddleston said.

In bulk form, the product costs around $28.50 per gallon with further discounts those who make large orders, Huddleston said.

Huddleston invested about $25,000 of his own money to get TC-11 started and was cautious about taking on investors.

"Edison didn't die rich," he said. "Most inventors get ruthlessly exploited and raising money is a slippery slope. You have to sort out who is legitimate."

But by gradually networking with people he knew when he lived in Los Angeles, Huddleston took on partners, forming I.C.C. Industries. Huddleston is chief executive and majority shareholder in the company, which has about 15 employees.

"It's a real small company. We have some investors here, (and) in L.A., then some sales people here, in Los Angeles and Florida," he said.

Huddleston was also able to arrange a manufacturing agreement with a factory in Texas in 2001 as well as warehouses in California and Florida.

More importantly, he also had enough references from his heavy equipment customers to begin selling TC-11 at the retail level on the mainland and in Hawaii.

"That was the big break," he said.

Since January, TC-11 has been available at Hardware Hawaii Ace stores.

Hardware Hawaii Vice President Dave Purington said he first got to know Huddleston as a customer before deciding to give the product a try.

"As a local Hawaii-based company we're interested in encouraging any small business," he said. "But I took a little bit of a leap of faith."

But with Huddleston's encouragement, they decided to try TC-11 on a few of the projects that were being done in-house.

Even though there are a variety of products out that perform similar functions, like the lubricant WD-40, Corrosion Block or Pennzoil Marine, Purington said TC-11 performed at least as well if not better than the others. And at $5.99 for a 12-ounce can, it's competitively priced, he said.

Huddleston estimates he is selling about a can a week of the product in Hawaii. But including the 100 stores in California, Florida and Hawaii, the company is doing about $7,000 a month in sales, he said.

The next step for Huddleston is to break into national hardware cooperative warehouses that purchase products on behalf of hardware stores and distribution systems so the product can go nationwide.

He'll also have to hook up with another company with a similar products and develop a line of corrosion control-related products. For a potential partnership with another company, paints and lubricants would be likely matches, he said.

But first he'll have to sell a lot of his product to demonstrate it can be sold.

"Right now, it's a store at a time," he said. "But the thing is we're doing it."