Lubrizol Expands Global Personal Care Network

With so much of the U.S. personal care industry located on the East Coast, Lubrizol Advanced Materials recently opened a new laboratory in Piscataway, NJ. It’s part of a plan to build on a global network of facilities to support the personal care industry via its Noveon Consumer Specialties business. To acknowledge the new site, Lubrizol invited customers and members of the press to an opening celebration in September.

The Lubrizol team of scientists and executives was on hand to provide tours of the facility, which includes an array of instruments to measure hair properties including: high humidity curl retention, stiffness, combing force, durability, single hair tensile strength, film tensile strength, friction film, film tack, gel strength and hair volume.

“With these tools, we can characterize ingredients and measure their performance in product applications,” said Alan Suares, global manager of technical services and applications. “This impacts the overall design of molecules to further scientific knowledge and to maximize performance characteristics, which leads to innovative new materials for our customers.”

The site represents a significant investment in the company’s efforts to better serve its customers.

“We have the facility staffed with scientists who are committed to bringing excellence to our customers in the form of creativity, innovation and technical knowledge,” said Mitch Graham, director of sales, North America. “We look forward to working more closely with our customers to help develop breakthrough products that will ensure significant growth and a brighter future for us all.”

The laboratory currently employs four scientists with the capacity to expand further for future growth.

The research team at the Piscataway site includes (l-r): Yi Yang, Ph.D. senior research chemist, hair fixatives; Hector Hernandez, research chemist, hair fixatives; Jon Toliver, research chemist, hair conditioning; and Wing Li, lab manager and senior research chemist, hair conditioning.
The Piscataway site complements the Noveon network of laboratories around the world, which already includes Latin and South America (Mexico City, Mexico and Sao Paulo, Brazil); Asia (Shanghai and Hong Kong, China), Europe (Brussels and Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium), India (Mumbai, Vadordara) and the U.S. (Cleveland, OH and Paso Robles, CA).

According to the company, each lab brings innovative new technologies to help meet the needs of its customers as well as provide technical knowledge, formulation and problem solving through an extensive technical service support network.