The biggest areas of growth in the PAG market appear to be in compressor lubricants and hydraulic oil. Those are areas where some of the products do offer some biodegradability, and thats always an interest in the marketplace, Hiple added. So with these products, and with the finished lubricants being biodegradable or food grade, it does offer an awful lot of flexibility for people in the marketplace to use these. Those are probably two hot topics these days – food grade and biodegradability.

The PAG products are used in a variety of industries and applications. In addition to compressor lubricants and hydraulic fluids, Hiple said other key offerings include overall industrial fluids, gear lubricants, and some refrigeration applications.

We can offer products for people who will either formulate their own products or would like to rebrand one of the existing BASF products, he pointed out. Theyre already a finished lubricant.

Customers may want to rebrand a product because they may not have the expertise of how to use a PAG product or how to put it together. If they dont have that knowledge, then its a lot easier and it saves the customer R&D expense, and gives them the ability to enter a market immediately just by rebranding a proven technology, Hiple asserted.

Monson of Leominster, Ma., since 2006 had distributed a variety of Cibas lubricant additives in the United States. In June 2009, Ludwigshafen, Germany-based BASF acquired Ciba, and Monson continued distributing the former Ciba products for BASF. In the U.S., Monson also distributes BASFs lubricant additives, and Teknor Apexs lubricant grade esters.