In the late 1950s, U.S. Steel funded a research project at Carnegie Mellon University.
The goal: find a way to use steel fibers to increase the tensile strength of concrete.
The result: Fibercon® steel fiber technology, proven to increase flexural strength, crack control, fatigue resistance and impact resistance. Although U.S Steel began manufacturing Fibercon® in 1972 for concrete construction applications, U.S. Steel eventually closed the Vandergrift operations in 1979 due to flat sales and poor growth.

Nicholas Mitchell, founder of Mitchell Industrial Sales Company, whose core business was to reclaim and sell copper and aluminum wire, started to look at diversification… another business to offset the increase in competition he faced. His prior experience in the concrete industry enabled him to see the benefits of Fibercon® and the potential applications for fiber technology.

It was this vision that prompted Nicholas Mitchell to purchase the Evans City plant in 1981. As the headquarters and primary manufacturing facility, this original location now comprises a total of 36,000 square feet.

From that humble beginning, Fibercon International has emerged as one of the world’s leading manufacturers of steel fiber reinforcement for the concrete construction and refractory industries. Sons, George Mitchell and Nicholas Mitchell Jr. now own and run the day to day operations of the company, further expanding the business to include sales offices in Europe and a manufacturing facility in China.

In addition to manufacturing carbon steel and stainless steel fibers, the operations include continuing research and development of fiber technology to improve and expand the application of fibers. True to their mission…true to Nicholas Mitchell’s vision…