Auburn man has slick idea for road work tools

AUBURN – Aaron Scalia thinks his invention for a Teflon-coated shovel is one slick idea.

Now he’s hoping that manufacturers think the same thing as a national invention incubator attempts to market it.

Scalia, a highway supervisor with Auburn Public Works, said workers routinely have to shape asphalt with shovels and rakes once the hot, gooey mixture is poured down for roads and sidewalks. But the asphalt also sticks to the tools, making them heavy and bad for shaping asphalt.

Until five years ago, the problem could be fixed by spraying the tools with diesel oil, which dissolved the leftover asphalt while making the tools slick so the tar wouldn’t stick. But federal regulations now forbid the practice, making sticky tools a problem.

Scalia then came up with the idea of making the tools slick in the first place, like a Teflon-coated frying pan. So he cut a frying pan into the shape of a shovel, attached it to a stick and brought it to work.

“I dug into the asphalt, and it worked like a charm,” he said.

Scalia has spent the last few years trying to get his idea to market. He’s now working with Invent-Tech, a Coral Gables, Fla., company that hatches new ideas.

Alain Arango, an inventor-relations representative for the company, said Scalia’s idea is in the advanced development stage, and that the company has promoted the idea to several tool manufacturers.

If a company likes the tools, Scalia could expect years’ worth of royalty payments if his Teflon-coated road tools make it off the assembly lines and into the hands of road crews, Arango said.

The payout could be substantial if there are enough orders and the licensing deal is done right, he said.

“We’re talking enough to never have to work again,” Arango said.