Chemtura Corp.'s Great Lakes Solutions unit has opened a new U.S. lab to research flame retardants used in plastics and other materials.
The new FR lab opened Aug. 1 at Chemtura's Nudenberg-Wheeler Technology Research Campus in Naugatuck, Conn. The site houses equipment for organic synthesis, flame retardant testing, physical property testing, chemical analysis, and process development, officials said in an Aug. 29 news release.
The new facilities “reinforce Great Lakes Solutions' commitment to fire safety, the development of innovative, new products, and customer collaboration and support,” they added.
The new lab also will allow Great Lakes Solutions' chemists and engineers to work more closely with those of Chemtura's Petroleum Additives and Urethanes businesses, who are co-located on the Naugatuck R&D campus.
Application areas at the site include small-scale bench top extrusion, injection molding and combustion testing equipment for the rapid formulation of new, exploratory flame retardants. They also include large-scale extruders and molding equipment for formulation improvement and new applications of existing products.
“Naugatuck is the primary global R&D location for Chemtura,” global chemical technology director Dave Sikora said in the release. “Locating the new flame retardant laboratories at this research campus will accelerate innovation for our customers through the collective wealth of technical expertise, knowledge and experience of all our scientists.”
Philadelphia-based Chemtura was assembled in the late 1990s from a number of companies including Great Lakes Chemicals, Compton and Knowles and Witco. The firm has annual sales of $1.7 billion and makes a wide range of specialty chemicals, including flame retardants and other plastics additives.