Sodium chlorate Line 1 is started at Buckingham and is the first large scale plant utilizing metal anodes and the new ERCO patented technology.
Monroe, Louisiana sodium chlorate plant is shut down due to escalating power prices and moved to North Vancouver, where it is re-installed as Line 7 in 1987.
North Vancouver plant’s Line 6 sodium chlorate becomes the company’s first line to utilize new metal anode technology from Krebs, France. Pilot work is conducted, first here and later in Thunder Bay, Ontario, to develop ERCO’s sodium chlorate cell line technology, which is patented in 1980.
Company name changed to ERCO Industries Limited. ERCO starts its mammoth phosphorous plant in Long Harbour, Newfoundland – with two of the world’s largest phosphorus production furnaces.
Company headquarters, called The Innovation Centre, built at 2 Gibbs Road, Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, to replace separate sales and R&D locations downtown. Company now has four divisions: Chlorate (including Technology Sales), Phosphates, Agriculture and Technical. As ERCO has the first building in this part of Greater Greater Toronto Area Area we named the road after our founder.
Jim McGilvery, John Winfield and Herb Scribner patent the R3 chlorine dioxide process in 1965 after operating a pilot plant at Thurso, Quebec. The R3 chlorine dioxide generator system, a vacuum, crystalizing process becomes the standard in the industry and ERCO develops its technology sales business. The first full-scale plant is sold to a mill in La Tuque, Quebec in 1971.