Meet the ace in the industry’s back pocket

By Emma Peterson. 

From chemical thumbprints to troubleshooting material regulations, ACE Laboratories helps the roofing industry develop smarter products.  

On a new episode of Roofing Road Trips®, Megan Ellsworth got to sit down with Erick Sharp to talk about ACE Laboratories. ACE is a full-service analytical testing lab that Erick founded and currently operates as the CEO. They started out in the construction polymer space, but in 2022 grew to expand further into roofing-specific testing. Today, leading organizations like the Cool Roof Rating Council (CRRC) rely on their lab for crucial product testing and analysis.  

This testing and analysis goes beyond just product performance testing and into compositional analysis of the material chemistry of products. This has quite a few benefits, including helping with approvals, identifying knock-offs and ensuring product regulations are met. 

Erick started by explaining how they can help with the recertification process:  

A lot of companies that need recertification of their products come to us. And we can help in a variety of ways, one big one is that when materials that become obsolete, but there's a direct chemical equivalent that, if you can prove its equivalency, can help you get certifications grandfathered in. We can prove that equivalency.  

As for identifying knockoffs, ACE is able to help by tracking what are called “chemical thumbprints.” Erick dove into what this means, sharing, “I always recommend that everybody thumbprint their products. This means, for your key products, you get an analytical thumbprint on it. Then you have an ID, so if someone develops a knockoff of your product, we can look at the chemical make up and prove it was a knockoff because it doesn’t match the chemical composition of your product’s thumbprint.”  

And last but not least, ACE can help ensure product regulations are met. For example, in the European market, there are a lot of complexities in terms of what materials can be present in products and how much of said material can be present. By sending a sample to ACE to test, you can get third-party confirmation of your product’s formulation to show your compliance. And if your testing comes back with an issue? The team at ACE can still help! Erick explained: 

When we do an assessment, especially if we're doing it for a regulatory reason, and we find that you're over that threshold, we can also provide feedback. We can audit the formulation and tell you where the issue is and give you suggestions for equivalent substitutes. Our team enjoys being troubleshooters as well as testers.  

Listen to the whole conversation with Erick to learn more about ACE Laboratories and their work in the roofing industry.