1920s-1990s
In the 1920s, the Armstrong Cork Products Company and Sherwin-Williams company were the largest industrial customers for hemp fiber.
In 1938, Armstrong bought Whitall Tatum, which had been one of the larger manufacturers of glass insulators for communications and power lines since entering that field in 1922. The Whitall Tatum name was phased out, first by removing "Co." from the molds, then replacing the "WT" logo with the Armstrong logo, and finally replacing the molds with ones bearing the Armstrong name. In April 1969, the business was sold to Kerr Glass Manufacturing Corporation. Kerr eventually moved insulator production from Millville to their Dunkirk, Indiana, factory in the mid-1970s, and production ceased by the end of the decade.
During World War II, Armstrong made 50-caliber round ammunition, wing tips for airplanes, cork sound insulation for submarines, and camouflage.
In 1952, Henning W. Prentis of Armstrong Cork Company and industrialists such as Alfred P. Sloan of General Motors, Frank W. Abrams of Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, and Henry Ford II of Ford Motor Company formed the Council for Financial Aid to Education, which increased corporate gifts to colleges from $24 million annually to $136 million annually over 10 years.
In 1958, Armstrong Cork Company created Armstrong Contracting and Supply Corporation. Armstrong Cork had done insulation contracting since the early 20th century, originally focusing on cork products. Gradually, greater emphasis was placed on high-temperature insulation. In 1969, this business was sold in a leveraged buyout to 31 existing and retired employees of the contracting company, which became Irex Corporation.
C.U.E., Inc. (from Custom Urethane Elastomers) started as the Polyurethane Division of Armstrong Cork in the 1960s. The Fluorocarbon Company of Anaheim, California, bought the division in 1972. On April 7, 1986, a group of seven employees acquired the division in a leveraged buyout.
In 1964, Armstrong bought Phoenix Chair Company, following up with Founders Furniture Company in 1965, Western Carolina Furniture Company in 1966, and both Thomasville Furniture and Caldwell Furniture in 1968. In the 1970s, they expanded with a low-end bedroom-furniture line. They bought Gilliam Furniture in 1986, bought and repurposed the former Stehle polyester factory in Carysbrook, Virginia, later that year, bought Westchester Group in 1987, and Gordon's in 1988, and made a major expansion to Thomasville that year. In 1995, Thomasville Furniture was sold to Interco (which became Furniture Brands International), a leading furniture manufacturer, with such brands as Broyhill and Lane.[5]
In 1998, Armstrong acquired Triangle Pacific Corp., a leading manufacturer of hardwood flooring and kitchen/bathroom cabinets.[6]
