Witco Corporation.

Witco Corporation

For more than 50 years, Witco Corporation's allied divisions have been supplying petroleum derivatives, chemical components and processing aids to maximize the performance and longevity of rubber products. Witco sales were approximately $1.6 billion in 1990.

Its Concarb Division is a major supplier of carbon black products sold primarily to the rubber industry for the manufacture of tires and mechanical rubber goods. The company has begun operating a new 75-million pound manufacturing unit at its plant in Ponca City, Okla., that increases capacity to 235 million pounds. The project, along with debottlenecking projects completed or currently in progress at its other plants in Phenix City, Ala., and Sunray, Texas, will increase Witco's total carbon black capacity to more than 435 million pounds per year. The company also has a jointly-owned carbon black plant in Sydney, Australia.

The Golden Bear Division, offering a complete line of naphthenic and aromatic process and extender oils nationwide and abroad, produces the widely recognized Bearflex [R], Califlux [R] and Cyclolube [R] brands at its Oildale, Calif. refinery. Specially selected, wax-free naphthenic crude oils, domestically produced in central California, result in a product that exhibits excellent compatibility and consistent chemical properties.

The Organics Division manufactures numerous surfactants and emulsifiers, metallic stearates, anti-sunchecking waxes and polyurethane intermediates used in the industry. In the surfactant product line, sulfonates, sulfates, sulfosuccinates and phosphate esters are useful in a wide variety of rubber and plastic applications. Included are their use to disperse reactive monomers in the emulsion polymerization of styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) elastomers. The materials are also used to stabilize the resulting polymer latex and others are used as frothing agents. Balab [R] defoamers and antifoams help remove residual monomer during the polymerization process and help prevent foaming.

Metallic stearates produced by the Organics Division provide lubricity, water repellency and anti-blocking properties in rubber processing and act as curing aids. Sunolite [R] waxes are added to rubber compounds during mixing to protect rubber products from cracking under all climate conditions. Its Fomrez [R] and Formrez [R] polyester and polyether polyols produce polyurethanes of high performance and durability. Fomrez polyurethane catalysts are used to manufacture foams having uniform appearance and cell structure. Witcobond [R] aqueous polyurethane dispersions are suitable as protective coatings and adhesives for a variety of rubber, plastic and metal substrates. The Division operates plants in Chicago and Blue Island, Ill., Perth Amboy, N.J., Houston and Forth Worth, Texas, Harrahan, La., and Santa Fe Springs, Calif.

The Humko Chemical Division offers an extensive line of oleochemicals for a variety of elastomer applications from polymerization to compounding to processing. Hystrene [R], Industrene [R], Kemester [R] and MoldPro [TM] products are used in emulsion polymerization, as accelerators in the vulcanization process, as processing agents to impart mold release and mold flow, and to improve extrusion productivity. The products are made at plants in Memphis, Tenn., and Newark, N.J.

The Argus Division is a manufacturer of organic peroxides used as initiators and vulcanizing agents, flame retardants compatible with SBR latices for applications such as carpet backing, chlorinated paraffin plasticizers for rubber processing, and antioxidants and thioesters for thermoplastic rubbers. Argus is headquartered in New York City with plants in Brooklyn, N.Y., Taft, La., Marshall and LaPorte, Texas and Brainards, N.J.

PHOTO : New production unit has begun operation at the carbon black plant complex of Witco Corporation's Concarb Division in Ponca City, Oklahoma. It is the first new carbon black facility built from the grass roots up in the U.S. in 20 years.