Since the purpose of a protective coating is to protect the structure to which it is applied, it stands to reason that it must be as impermeable and abrasion resistant as possible. When, in the late 1950's, Jim Hume (then with Owens-Corning) was given the task of finding a use for the extremely thin (2 microns) chemical grade flaked glass that they had developed, it occurred to him that it might be possible to give polyester resin much better performace characteristics by incorporating the Owens product. What followed revolutionized the protective coatings industry.