About Dynamis Epoxy, LLC

Three Generations of Engineering, Manufacturing & Epoxy Innovation

For more than seven decades, the Caramanian family has been developing, manufacturing and using products designed to solve real industrial problems.

What is now Dynamis Epoxy began as a family manufacturing business in Cincinnati during the 1950s and has evolved through three generations into the industrial epoxy company operating today from Venice, Florida.

Our history includes industrial coatings, concrete repair systems, adhesives, dynamic balancing compounds, pump-repair materials and specialty epoxy products developed from decades of hands-on manufacturing and field experience.

Many of the products we manufacture today trace their roots directly to formulations developed by the first two generations of the Caramanian family.

 

The Beginning — Ara Caramanian

 

Engineering, military service, and the roots of Commercial Chemical Company

 

Ara Caramanian — The Beginning

Engineering, Service and the Roots of Commercial Chemical Company

Ara Caramanian was a graduate of Newark College of Engineering and a civil engineer. During World War II, he served as a Lieutenant in the United States Navy in the Pacific theater.

Shortly after the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Ara was sent into the area as part of the effort to map the devastation.

After the war, Ara initially went into business with his brother, Armen, in Newark, New Jersey. The brothers eventually went their separate ways. Armen moved to Texas, while Ara ultimately settled in Cincinnati, Ohio.

With assistance from his wife’s family, Ara began building a manufacturing business serving the coal mining industry and communities throughout Appalachia. In those early years, the company produced a remarkably broad range of products—from mop handles and bleach to paints, chemicals and industrial materials.

The business eventually became known as Commercial Chemical Company.

During the 1950s, epoxy technology began creating new possibilities in industrial bonding, coatings and concrete repair. Ara and his son, John Ara Caramanian, began experimenting with the emerging technology, laying the foundation for many of the epoxy products that would define the company for decades to come.

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Used in breweries since the 1960’s.
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John Ara Caramanian — Innovation and Field Experience

John Ara Caramanian began working alongside his father, Ara, at a young age and became deeply involved in the development and application of the company’s epoxy products.

During the 1960s, the company’s work expanded considerably. When Allis-Chalmers approached Ara about developing an epoxy material for dynamically balancing electric motors, the resulting product became EPO Dynaweight. John continued developing and expanding the Dynaweight line for motor manufacturers and repair facilities.

Following Ara’s death in 1970, John took the reins of Commercial Chemical Company. He continued developing products while also expanding the company into industrial contracting, giving him firsthand experience using the company’s materials under demanding field conditions.

Commercial Chemical completed concrete repair and coating work at college stadiums, parking garages, sections of Interstates I-75 and I-275, and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Many of the systems used on those projects remain part of the Dynamis product line today, including EPO Patch & Grout, EPO Resurfacer, Joint Sealants and industrial epoxy coatings.

John also refined the company’s pre-measured kit system, allowing customers to mix properly proportioned materials without weighing components in the field. He continued developing new products, including Pour-Flex, a flexible epoxy potting compound designed to protect electrical components in submersible motors.

His approach combined product development with real-world application experience—an approach that became a defining part of the company for the generations that followed.

The Third Generation Begins — 1983

John Caramanian II grew up in the business. His first official paycheck from Commercial Chemical came during the summer of 1983, when he was 12 years old.

While many of his friends spent their summers away from work, John’s were largely spent at Commercial Chemical. His earliest responsibilities included mixing paint, manufacturing and packaging EPO Dynaweight, preparing products for shipment, and learning the business from the factory floor up.

Over the years, his responsibilities expanded into virtually every part of the operation, including manufacturing, packaging, field work, laboratory testing and quality control.

His father made certain that being the owner’s son brought no special treatment. John was expected to show up, do the work and earn his place like everyone else. He bought his own cars, paid his own insurance, and learned early that very little in life or business was simply given to him.

John’s father was direct and demanding. If something was wrong, he said so. Those years taught John lessons that would later shape his own approach to running Dynamis: understand the work, know the products, take responsibility, and never assume success is guaranteed.

1992 — Cincinnati to Venice

In 1992, John Ara Caramanian moved the business from Cincinnati, Ohio, to 415 E. Venice Avenue in Venice, Florida, where Dynamis Epoxy continues to operate today.

The move marked a new chapter for the company and placed it in an environment well suited for continued development of industrial, marine and specialty epoxy systems.

For a relatively brief period, the company operated under the DeCara name. As the business continued to evolve and focus more specifically on its epoxy products and technology, it ultimately moved forward as Dynamis Epoxy.

Florida eventually became more than simply the company’s new home. Its marine, coastal and industrial environment created new opportunities for testing products, working directly with customers and developing solutions for demanding applications.

Innovation Across Generations

Product development at Dynamis has always been hands-on. John Ara Caramanian and his son, John Caramanian II, continued that tradition together—testing ideas, evaluating applications and developing solutions around real problems encountered in the field.

The photograph shown here captures John Sr. and John II working together on a new product concept at a local marina. It represents the way products have been developed throughout the company’s history: identify a problem, work directly with the application, and develop a practical solution.

That same philosophy continues today as Dynamis works on a new line of marine products focused on marina and shipyard applications.

2022 — A New Chapter for Dynamis

In May 2022, John Caramanian II formally took over Dynamis Epoxy, becoming the third generation of the Caramanian family to lead the company.

The transition came during one of the most difficult periods in the company’s history. Dynamis had been operating under significant financial pressure, carrying debt and spending years in the red. In the period leading up to taking control, John worked for approximately a year for little or no pay. When he did take a paycheck, it was often at minimum wage because the needs of the company had to come first.

The business also had to survive the disruption caused by COVID. Even during periods when Dynamis was making little or no money, John made a decision that was especially important to him: he would not let a single employee go simply to improve the numbers.

The team stayed together.

John believed then, as he does today, that the people at Dynamis are more than employees. They are the team—and in many ways the family—that makes the company what it is.

Under his leadership, Dynamis worked its way out of debt and moved from operating in the red to becoming profitable again for the first time in many years.

The turnaround reinforced many of the lessons John had learned from his father decades earlier: understand the work, know the numbers, take responsibility, protect the people who make the business possible, and never assume success is guaranteed.

Reinvesting in Dynamis

Returning Dynamis to profitability was only part of the job. John also believed the company needed to reinvest in itself if it was going to remain competitive and continue improving safety, consistency and product quality.

When John took over, Dynamis had not purchased major new production equipment in more than 30 years, and much of the company’s packaging, labeling and product information had remained largely unchanged.

That began to change.

One of the most significant investments was the purchase of a new Ross explosion-proof high-speed disperser. The new equipment improved manufacturing safety, provided greater control during production and helped produce a more consistent finished product.

John Sr. had always believed that much of the company’s older equipment was better built than newer machinery. After seeing the new Ross disperser operate, however, even he acknowledged that newer technology offered advantages the old equipment could not.

The modernization of Dynamis has been a team effort. Together, the people at Dynamis have worked to improve the company’s packaging and labels, rewrite product instructions, update Safety Data Sheets and compliance documentation, and improve the way products are prepared and presented to customers.

The company also invested in a commercial stretch-wrap machine to improve palletized shipments and in a professionally designed website that continues to evolve as product information, technical documentation and the company’s history are updated.

The goal has never been to change Dynamis simply for the sake of change. It has been to preserve the products and knowledge that have proven themselves over decades while working together to improve the equipment, safety, consistency, documentation and presentation surrounding them.

Building What Comes Next

Dynamis continues to manufacture products that were developed and proven over generations, but the company is not standing still.

Today, John and the Dynamis team continue to evaluate new materials, improve existing products and look for opportunities to solve problems in industries where durable epoxy systems are needed.

One area of particular focus is the development of a new line of marine products for marina and shipyard applications. The goal is to build on Dynamis’ experience with industrial coatings, corrosion protection, concrete repair, pump repair and demanding marine environments.

Just as Ara and John Sr. developed products around real problems encountered in the field, Dynamis continues to follow the same approach today: identify the problem, understand the application and develop a practical solution.

Three Generations. One Philosophy.

Understand the problem.
Know the product.
Make it correctly.
Stand behind it.

That philosophy began with Ara Caramanian, continued with John Ara Caramanian, and remains at the center of Dynamis Epoxy today.