History

The original "Mighty-Mite Mortar" was first developed in 1983 by Paul Spielbauer and his father Clinton Spielbauer of Spielbauer Fireworks Co., Inc. of Green Bay, Wisconsin. Like most fireworks companies, they wanted to get away from the handling and maintenance of the heavy steel mortars. They also did not want the expense of replacing cardboard frequently.

HDPE looked like a good material to work with since other plastic like PVC and ABS were too brittle. Fiberglass looked promising too, but it could not handle the rough use and there were questions about how well it would hold up for those winter shows on frozen lakes.

Through a golf buddy, the Spielbauers approached a die maker to see if they could come up with a way to make a 100% HDPE mortar. After a fairly significant initial investment in the dies and a small production run of 3" mortars, they put them to the test. The test results were impressive, so they put them into service at their shows for a season.

The Spielbauers use premium aerial shells like Rozzi, Mantsuna, Sunny and the like. They knew if the mortars could stand up to repeated use of these shells, especially the domestic canister style shells, including color and report and 3 color compartment shells, they would have found the long-term solution for a lightweight mortar that was easy to maintain and presented a lower shrapnel hazard.

This 3" HDPE custom made, one piece, seamless blowmolded HDPE tube cost more than cardboard, but lasted for years and was even lighter. It was lighter than extruded HDPE pipe with wood plug and had no fasteners, so there was no blowby. They also were easy to maintain too!

Their original red HDPE mortars, which are thinner walled than the current model and with a square bottom, are still in regular use today!

A few years later they modified the original design and made a 4" mortar. The walls were thicker and the bottom was changed from being flat and almost square, to partially rounded. These first 4" were also red and put into service at their display company.

The Spielbauers sold some of these to a few other display companies, like Rozzi in Ohio. They also used them in their displays and found they solved a number of problems with other materials and configurations.

After 6 years of successfully using these new HDPE mortars in theses displays, the Spielbauers looked to recoup some of their initial investment in the dies by marketing them internationally. They began working with Weeth & Associates in La Crosse, Wisconsin and started a new company called Mighty-Mite Marketing, Inc.

The new company developed a complete line of mortars with the addition of Pyro-Pipe Mortars in 5", 6", 8", 10" and 12" IDs. Later the 10" and 12" were dropped because of lower demand.

The Pyro-Pipe Mortars are the ultimate in larger caliber mortars and are refinements of proven designs and testing within the industry over the last 20 years. Custom extruded HDPE pipe was made to fireworks ID, roundness and wall thickness specifications rather than stock plumbing pipe that varies considerably.

The wall thicknesses range from 0.25 to 0.33. The plugs are bolted with 2 bolts all the way through our individually custom made, solid wood plugs, which are equal to the ID in thickness.

Mighty-Mites are now available in 2", 2½", 3" & 4" IDs with OD heights from 14", 16", 18" to 24". Now black with a test tube shaped bottom and ¼" thick walls, they can handle even 3-break canister shells and are the lightest and most resilient fireworks mortars on the market today!

Mighty-Mite Marketing has sold more custom HDPE mortars to more customers around the world than any other company! After tens of thousands of mortars used by some of the best known names in the business, Mighty-Mite is prepared to assist you with your needs too.