The current blend withstands a simple test: In a common company demonstration, a blowtorch turns a penny into molten material in seconds, but the underlying fabric is undamaged. A demo with a competitor fabric not only melts the cloth, but the penny "becomes one" with the stuff.

That kind of demonstration and others have wowed people in several industries. CarbonX is used as protective material primarily in industry, motor sports, fire-safety industries and the military — the types of jobs that Thatcher said are in "the pinnacle of risk" — as well as in non-apparel applications such as fire-shielding for vehicles.

CarbonX clothing includes undergarments, gloves, boot materials, hoods and liners to protect firefighters, people working near molten metals in steel mills or copper smelters, race-car drivers, Hollywood stunt people — as well as just plain folks who fuel their vehicles.

The military uses CarbonX gloves and the fabric's fire- and heat-shielding for vehicles. CarbonX can even be found aboard aircraft, protecting precious cargo, and in bank bags that tote cash.

"I think we're just at the very front edge," Thatcher says. "When you look at the industrial safety market, for example, our best assessments of that market puts the value at $200 million to $300 million in protective apparel in that space."

Making a difference

But that doesn't mean CarbonX hasn't already had an impact. Glowing testimonials that folks have sent to the company reveal the product's special characteristics.

Drag racer Larry Dixon once doubted the company's CarbonX claims, so he wrapped his hand inside some of the fabric and turned up the grill of his gas stove. He held his hand on the burner and counted — timing to see how the fabric would do during the time it would take for rescue crews to arrive, put out a fire and pull him from his vehicle. After about a minute, he uncovered his hand, which was undamaged.

Then came a 2003 accident at the track. "My car blew up. It was in pieces on the track, engulfed in flames. Not having to worry about the fire allowed me to concentrate on safely stopping the car so I could get out of it alive. Because I was wearing CarbonX, I was able to make it home to have dinner with my family that night."

The wife of a steel-mill worker tells how her husband suffered severe burns when molten slag exploded, but she credits a CarbonX hood and undergarments with saving his life: "He would be dead right now if not for your products," she wrote.

Curtis Flowers, safety director for Nucor Steel Berkeley, commended the fabric's protection, longevity and cost-effectiveness. "In my 30 years of working in the safety field," he wrote, "I have never seen a material that is as comfortable and offers as much protection as CarbonX."

Spreading out