The Engineer posted on October 12, 2006
Patricia Billings received a patent in 1997 for a fire resistant building material called Geobond. Billings’ work as a sculpture artist put her on a journey to find or develop a durable additive to prevent her painstaking plaster works from accidentally falling and shattering. After nearly two decades of basement experiments, the result of her efforts was a solution which when added to a mixture of gypsum and concrete, creates an amazingly fire resistant, indestructible plaster. Not only can Geobond add longevity to artistic works of plastic, but also it is steadily being embraced by the construction industry as an almost universal building material. Geobond is made with non-toxic ingredients which makes it the ideal replacement for asbestos.
Currently Geobond is being sold in more than 20 markets worldwide, and Patricia Billings, great grandmother, artist, and inventor remains at the helm of her carefully constructed Kansas City-based empire.