Category: Lubrizol

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The Lubrizol Corporation has announced an update to its ambitious global expansion program supporting the company’s Engineered Polymers thermoplastics polyurethane (TPU) business and growing global demand for its Estane TPU, Pearlthane TPU, Pearlbond TPU and other product lines.

Lubrizol’s combined investment of nearly $80 million will add capacity in key plants in North America, Europe and Asia.

“Ongoing investments in Engineered Polymers are an integral part of Lubrizol’s global growth strategy and strengthen our position in every region of the world. We see a robust market poised for growth with a rebounding global economy, infrastructure and technology investments, and increasing demand for higher performing, more sustainable materials. We are well prepared to meet the needs of this dynamic market,” states Arnau Pano, Vice President and General Manager, Lubrizol Engineered Materials.

In North America, the company is adding new state-of-the-art production capabilities, expanded raw material storage, warehouse space and improved site logistics. With the latest investment, new capacity is expected to come onstream later this year.

In Songjiang, China, the company held a ribbon cutting ceremony earlier this month to inaugurate a new compounding line and new extrusion lines. 2018 marks the fourth major expansion in Songjiang since the plant first produced TPU in the early 2000s.

Recognizing the vast potential of the Chinese market, Lubrizol was the first foreign company to invest in local TPU production. Further investment is planned in Asia in 2019.

In Europe, the company is extending production capabilities for elastomers, aliphatics and adhesives. These expansions build on the acquisition of Merquinsa in 2011, and improvements to R&D laboratories in 2016. A next major European expansion is planned for 2019.

Jian-Wei Dong, General Manager, Lubrizol Engineered Polymers, adds, “Lubrizol has been recognized as a market leader since its invention of TPU for commercial use. These staged investments demonstrate our long-term commitment to innovation and growth and strengthen our ability to serve customers worldwide. The added capabilities ensure that we deliver world class quality and more sustainable manufacturing practices. Our resources are aligned to quickly identify and respond to market trends, fast-track innovation and applications development, and help our customers be more successful in the markets they serve.”

© 2018 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

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Berkshire Hathaway’s Lubrizol Corporation has selected Simko S.A. as the new distributor for the thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) portfolio of the company’s Engineered Polymers business throughout Argentina.

Simko S.A. distributes engineering plastics, synthetic rubbers, rubber chemicals and industrial equipment for rubber and plastic industries in Argentina. They have warehouse and office facilities strategically located in San Martin near the Buenos Aires highway network.

The agreement, which took effect on October 15, 2017, but was just announced on January 3, 2018, includes the following key product lines which are well-suited for today’s innovative and demanding applications:

– Estane(R) TPU: Estane TPU products are utilized in film and sheet, extrusion, blow molding, injection molding, over molding, calendaring and solution coating processes.

– Isoplast(R) ETP: Isoplast ETP products are hard and high flexural modulus polyurethane engineering resins with excellent chemical resistance and barrier properties.

– Pearlbond(TM) TPU: The Pearlbond TPU portfolio includes products for Hot Melt Adhesives (HMA) and Reactive Hot Melts (HMPUR), typically used in automotive interior parts, bookbinding, furniture, textile and footwear.

– Pearlstick(TM) TPU: Pearlstick TPU products are designed for use in the manufacture of solvent-based adhesives.

Other products that will also be distributed by Simko S.A are: Pearlcoat(TM) TPU, Pearlthane(TM) TPU, Pearlthane(TM) ECO* TPU and Carbo-Rite(TM) Conductive Compounds and Sheet Products.

Rogerio Colucci, Lubrizol Engineered Polymers business manager for Latin America comments, “It is exciting to work with Simko S.A. as they have excellent in-depth knowledge of the engineering plastics and rubber markets in Argentina. When combined with Lubrizol’s innovative and durable TPU solutions for specialized wire and cable, adhesives, consumer and industrial applications, this will further enhance our ability to work closely with customers, helping them solve valuable problems and drive innovation and growth in Argentina.”

Eduardo Simko, CEO of Simko S.A., comments “We are proud of having been selected as Lubrizol’s new distributor. We are impressed by the wide portfolio of products and the quality of the products, as well as Lubrizol’s commitment to market development.”

© 2018 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) awarded the University of Pittsburgh Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering and Ohio specialty chemicals provider Lubrizol Corporation a collaborative grant for research into clean energy chemical manufacturing. The DOE grant, along with contributions from Pitt and Lubrizol, will total $7.5 million over a four-year period.

“The project will focus on applying advanced chemical engineering research to industrial-scale chemical manufacturing,” said Steven Little, William Kepler Whiteford Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at Pitt. “The Pitt-Lubrizol partnership aligns well with University efforts to work with businesses to translate research into industry practices and impact the region’s economy in a positive way.”

The grant is part of the DOE’s Rapid Advancement in Process Intensification Deployment (RAPID) initiative, a partnership between the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and the DOE. Both Pitt and Lubrizol are among the 45 members of the $70 million AIChE/RAPID Initiative for improving energy efficiency and industrial productivity through process intensification and modular manufacturing–two design approaches for chemical manufacturing at industry-relevant scales.

“At Lubrizol, we are working with thousands of tons of chemicals per year,” said Cliff Kowall, Lubrizol technical fellow and corporate engineer. “The end objective is to provide the design basis to allow Lubrizol to deploy these innovative processes with sharp reductions in waste generation, utility, and energy costs, capital cost, and footprint accompanied by an improvement in quality consistency.”

Kowall was integral in establishing the initial partnership between Pitt and Lubrizol, which began in 2014 with a $1.2 million Strategic Alliance agreement. The partnership brought about opportunities for students to learn about engineering needs in an industrial environment, while at the same time benefiting Lubrizol through research projects tailored to its business operations. Last month, Pitt and Lubrizol renewed the partnership, worth roughly $1 million invested over a three-year period.

“The University of Pittsburgh was by far the best fit for us to establish a relationship with a university, largely due to the enthusiasm of the Pitt Chemical Engineering leadership team,” said Kowall. “Lubrizol made a long-term commitment initially, and now we’ve extended it for three more years with the expectation of it lasting indefinitely.”

The partnership helped Pitt’s Chemical and Petroleum Engineering Department develop the course “Introduction to Chemical Product Design” (ChE 0214). Open to students in their sophomore year, the course teaches how to design products specific to a customer’s needs. In a traditional paradigm, engineering students don’t work on design projects until their senior years.

“This alliance has led to new educational programs that are first-of-their-kind in the country, exposing our students to unique opportunities to learn design principles and leading to multiple awards and even a spin-out company for our students,” said Dr. Little.

The follow-up course, “Taking Products to Market: The Next Step in Chemical Product Design” (ChE 0314), focuses on entrepreneurship and the skills necessary to successfully turn their ideas into products or companies.

“About half of the initial $1.2 million agreement went into the development of these courses and the resources to ensure our students’ success,” said Dr. Little. “Collaborating with Lubrizol directly, plus a jumpstart on product design, really gives our students a competitive advantage after graduation.”

Another feature of the partnership was the creation of the ‘University of Pittsburgh Physical Property Internship,’ which is a nine-month internship targeted at chemical engineering students who graduate in December and are intending to go to graduate school in the fall.

“This helps Lubrizol as well as the student who might have trouble finding something worthwhile to do in that rather awkward time. Three of the first four recipients became full-time employees,” said Kowall. “We have put emphasis on recruiting co-op students from Pitt. We work with the faculty to identify high potential candidates. Retention has been excellent in keeping co-op students as full-time employees.”

© 2017 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee

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Lubrizol’s Particle Sciences division has signed an agreement to manufacture PixarBio’s NR14 product for clinical trials.

In 2018, PixarBio will be able to apply to the US FDA for fast track approval through the CDER Breakthrough Therapy designation.

“Although the agreement covers our 14 day treatment, we also have a 7 and 3 day product in our pipeline that are not part of this agreement. We worked for over 3 years with PSI to put this agreement in place and look forward to a long term collaboration. I am confident that with the FDA’s fast track approval we can receive FDA clearance to market NR14 in late 2019,” said CEO Frank Reynolds.

According to PixarBio, NeuroRelease™ is a morphine replacement, and non-addictive pain platform for post-surgical pain. First product FDA approval for the platform will be for a 14-day post-surgical pain treatment and it is expected in late 2019.

The platform can be formulated for acute and chronic pain treatments.

© 2017 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

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The Lubrizol Corporation has opened a state-of-the-art drumming facility and warehouse at its Painesville Township, Ohio manufacturing facility, both of which are part of the company’s previously announced phased investment at the site.

The total $70 million investment better positions the company to meet the changing demands of customers and ensures the integrity and quality of its products while reinforcing personal and environmental safety.

Construction on the 180,000 square feet combined buildings began in April 2015. With a focus on enhancing safety and business processes, the new buildings will be instrumental in reducing risk and achieving the company’s business objectives of improving effectiveness, efficiency and consistency.

“Historically, the Painesville Township site has been of great importance to our business, operating for more than 60 of the company’s nearly 90 years,” said Tom Curtis, incoming president of Lubrizol Additives. “This latest investment reinforces our commitment to the community by further ensuring the site as a key source in Lubrizol Additives’ global supply chain.”

With more than half of all Lubrizol Additives products worldwide containing at least one component manufactured at the Painesville Township site, adding new manufacturing capacity and updated automated packaging capabilities was a necessity. Furthermore, these efforts are important to ensure product integrity and to improve the overall safety and efficiency of handling product drums and totes.

“With our new drum filling facility, we will be able to improve safety by minimizing the manual packaging of drums, reducing packaging time for a single batch by more than 50% and minimizing the number of times a drum is handled by more than 70%,” commented Craig Hupp, Lubrizol Painesville Township plant manager. “And, with 100% indoor storage provided by our new warehouse, we will improve the quality and appearance of packaged products delivered to our customers. All of these improvements will be a tremendous value to our overall organization.”

© 2017 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

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The Lubrizol Corporation’s LifeSciences business is investing $10 million for a significant capacity expansion at its silicone contract manufacturing site in Franklin, Wisconsin.

This investment strengthens the company’s silicone business by adding 71,000 square feet of space that complements the existing 126,000 square foot operation.

Previously, in 2010, Vesta more than doubled its footprint at this location; the current expansion supports LifeSciences’ long-term growth strategy to provide high-quality manufacturing for silicone implants and finished medical devices.

“When customers partner with Lubrizol LifeSciences, they benefit from working with us at every stage in their development process,” states Uwe Winzen, general manager, Lubrizol LifeSciences. “With a long history of polymer expertise combined with recent investments, Lubrizol LifeSciences is positioned to offer full-service development for the next generation of medical devices, as well as long-term implantable and drug-eluting device innovations.”

The expansion adds 71,000 square feet of new space featuring product development, cellular manufacturing, and high-efficiency production lines, as well as separate Class 7 & 8 clean room space for the production of implants and drug-eluting devices.

The expansion allows LifeSciences to capitalize on the strong local labor pool and technical expertise offered in the Wisconsin area.

“This new space covers immediate short-term needs, but also provides room for growth in the future. Customers can feel comfortable that we are able to handle both their current projects, as well as a significant increase in their future business efforts,” states Mark Stuart, general manager, Vesta. “Companies looking for a world-class, efficient contract manufacturing partner can choose us knowing that we are a sustainable partner for their long term growth.”

© 2017 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

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What’s more excellent than excellent? Excellenter? Excellentest? Well, anyway, Berkshire Hathaway’s Lubrizol has announced that its Performance Coatings business is upgrading its Textile Coatings Center of Excellence in Gastonia, North Carolina.

The facility, which focuses on research and development of coatings technologies for textile and non-woven substrates, and is dedicated to formulating and testing innovative coating technologies for an array of technical textile applications.

The new Center of Excellence is a state of the art textile coating product development and applications testing facility.

“By upgrading our capabilities, we continue our longstanding commitment to the textiles industry”, says Bob Bonner, technical manager. “This investment expands our ability to deliver a wide range of textile coating and testing services for customers, including flame retardancy, abrasion resistance, water repellency, chemical resistance, and stretch-restriction capability.”

“Our textiles team in Gastonia is focused on providing an outstanding experience for customers through technical service”, comments Ted Parigian, sales manager, textile coatings. “They’re constantly developing new technologies, and these upgrades will enhance our ongoing ability to deliver winning solutions.”

Lubrizol investments in global Center of Excellences ensure the ability for highly skilled technical experts to collaborate with customers and each other in world class labs with modern equipment to efficiently deliver advanced coating technologies to customers. “Reducing our response time to customers is a key business goal,” notes Lee Young, technical director. “When we can bring the right, differentiated products to customers and meet their time requirements in the process, then we are a critical part of their success and profitability.”

© 2017 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

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Commercial drug product manufacturing will be added at the Lubrizol’s Particle Sciences facility in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

The move to become a commercial drug product manufacturer, rather than just a producer of trial supplies used in testing, will enable Particle Science to produce pharmaceutical products for commercial sale by its customers.

Particle Science already has several customers lined up for its new service, and plans to hire an additional 30 employees to its existing workforce of 85 employees.

The roughly $10 million expansion of its facility will be adjacent to the existing development and clinical trial manufacturing site, offering customers a seamless flow from development through manufacturing.

The new space, which is expected to be operational in the fourth quarter of 2017, will accommodate both sterile and non-sterile products, highly potent compounds, and organic solvent processing.

The expansion id part of Lubrizol’s $60 million investment that will focus on new product solutions, capacity expansion and additional cGMP manufacturing.

© 2017 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

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The Lubrizol Corporation’s LifeSciences business is continuing to invest in its key capabilities through a variety of planned expansions.

During this latest phase, a $60 million investment will focus on new product solutions, capacity expansion and additional cGMP manufacturing. These investments will strengthen the excipients, polymers, drug formulation and manufacturing, and medical device contract manufacturing capabilities at Lubrizol LifeSciences’ global facilities.

Commercial drug product manufacturing will be added at the company’s Particle Sciences facility in Bethlehem, PA. Leveraging the company’s knowledge in complex formulations and production, the facility will be adjacent to the existing development and clinical trial manufacturing site, offering customers a seamless flow from development through manufacturing. This new space, which is expected to be operational in the fourth quarter of 2017, will accommodate both sterile and non-sterile products, highly potent compounds, and organic solvent processing.

Additionally, LifeSciences is investing to expand its global facilities for excipients, polymers and contract manufacturing, with a focus on quality and efficiency. This capital investment will impact multiple sites to increase in-house engineering capacity across the LifeSciences portfolio of medical and pharmaceutical applications. This includes new investments in design, manufacturing and sterilization technologies for the production of interventional catheters and long-term implantable devices, an area of strategic importance to the medical device segment.

“We have significantly enhanced our capabilities through the combination of strong polymer technology, application know-how and world-class manufacturing,” states Deb Langer, vice president, Lubrizol Personal Home and Health Care.

“As healthcare companies look for total solution providers, we continue to invest in the right areas to provide valuable offerings where our customers are experiencing the most growth.”

© 2017 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.