Twenty-five years ago, Arthur Haag had wrapped up one career in plastics and started another by founding purging compound maker Neutrex Inc.
Twenty-five years later, Houston-based Neutrex has just completed an expansion and still is going strong. Its Purgex-brand purging compounds are used to clean injection molding, extrusion and blow molding machines.
“The whole strategy was to prove that the product had good benefits to the molder,” Haag told Plastics News in a recent interview. “Growth was slow at first, but now we've got 30 distributors and are selling around the world.”
Haag had retired in 1986 from Phillips Petroleum Co., where he had worked with polymer catalysts. When he started Neutrex, Haag said that the firm “was a one-man operation — I set up the lab, made the product and went on the road selling.”
Neutrex now employs 24 and increased production capacity last year by 50 percent with the installation of a new blending unit. Office space also was expanded in 2016, and a fully-equipped new chemistry lab was added to supplement testing on an injection molding machine.
Haag — at age 88 — still serves as Neutrex's president and CEO. His son Kenneth serves as the firm's operations manager. In a news release, Kenneth Haag said that that the efficiency and control systems of the new equipment installed last year will help ensure the safety of its operators, continuing the company's 25-year accident-free record.
Purgex materials are engineered to provide fast, thorough purging of plastics processing equipment with minimal scrap when changing colors or resins. Neutrex recently introduced Purgex 742, a grade aimed at polypropylene copolymer applications, such as automotive interiors.