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Our Impact
Innovation is at the heart of what we do.
For over a century, we have delivered high-performance materials that elevate the capabilities of our customers’ products, together solving complex challenges and enabling them to thrive. Our innovative solutions not only enhance the properties of the products we touch; they also drive progress across various end applications we serve. Our combined legacy of innovation, reliability and quality continues today, as we develop cutting-edge materials that unlock new possibilities for a more sustainable future.
Our commitment to innovation is deeply rooted in collaboration. By working closely with customers, suppliers, academia and national labs, we create valuable insights that fuel breakthroughs and shape the future of our industries. We focus on leveraging both our longstanding expertise and our investment in application innovation to meet the evolving functional needs of the market. This allows us to extend our leadership in performance materials, while delivering superior value to our stakeholders. In doing so, we empower our customers to stay ahead in an increasingly competitive world.
We offer a wide variety of materials that can be formulated into rubber, thermosetting resins and thermoplastics to enhance mechanical properties. Our understanding of particle design and polymer interactions allow us to deliver materials that optimize application performance such as:
- Abrasion resistance and stiffness for auto and truck tire wear and handling
- Extreme cut and chip performance for giant mining tires
- Strength and ability to withstand high deformations in silicone sealants
- Strength and compression resistance in windshield glazing adhesives
- Toughness and adhesion for automotive crash resistant adhesives
Many of our customers value the color that our products provide. Understanding the fundamentals of how that color is delivered, measured and communicated is key to ensuring we are successful with our customers and deliver the performance that they need.
Our expertise in color science engineering include:
- Inkjet colorants providing high image vibrancy and wide gamut enabling the digitization of industrial printing applications
- Specialty carbons offering high jetness and excellent dispersibility in waterborne coating formulations, facilitating the transition to more sustainable alternatives to solvent coating systems
- Specialty masterbatches and concentrates imparting “piano black” color to plastic molded parts while simultaneously achieving low odor
Rheology modification of simple and complex formulations is a key reason why customers design with our products. Our particles are tailored to control flow behavior in melts, colloids and solvent systems used in a wide variety of applications from coatings, inks, adhesives and sealants to plastics and elastomers. For example, our hydrophobic fumed silica leverages particle morphology and surface chemistry to balance anti-settling and shear-thinning behavior in adhesives, enabling high solids formulations that perform reliably in high-speed robotic applications, including structural thermally conductive adhesives for electric vehicle battery packs.
We have a long history as a leader in conductive additives, with a broad portfolio including carbon blacks, carbon nanotubes and carbon nanostructures, together with the ability to provide blended formulations to enhance application performance. Notable benefits of our portfolio include:
- Reduced risk of catastrophic discharge of electrostatic energy in wire and cable jackets
- Longer range and faster charging of electric vehicles with Li-ion batteries
- Longer cycle life in stationary energy storage systems
- Improved fuel cell performance as durable and conductive catalyst supports
- Robust static discharge damage protection in electronic and electrical packaging materials
The chemistry on the surface of a particle governs how that particle interacts with the surrounding matrix, facilitating the performance of the end material. We excel at utilizing chemistry to modify the surface of our particles to provide differentiation and value to our customers, including:
- Organic pigments and carbon black that are surface-modified for inkjet printing to enhance dispersibility and image quality
- Carbon black particles that are modified to create self-dispersible products for industrial coatings, automotive basecoats or inkjet printing
- Silica particles that are chemically treated to provide sag resistance in adhesives, coatings and sealants
- Conductive carbons that are treated to provide durability and in fuel cell applications
Our customers rely on our leadership in carbon and metal oxide materials as well as our ability to make and characterize materials with a broad set of features sets us apart. Our competency in new particle concepts, synthesis, processing and scale-up allows us to create particles that are tailored in composition, size, morphology, surface area, porosity, surface energy and chemical functionality. Our knowledge of formulations helps determine how our materials will perform in our customer’s end applications.
