Daubert Chemical completed a multi-million dollar, three-year expansion of its calcium sulfonate plant in Chicago that more than doubles its capacity.
The specific cost and capacity are confidential, Matt McGinnis, Dauberts director of commercial development, told Lube Report. He said the company repurposed an unutilized area of the production facility and installed new equipment to achieve the capacity increase.
The company supplies calcium sulfonate to manufacturers of greases, rust preventatives, metalworking fluids and gear oil additives. Customers have included major companies in the automotive, construction, defense and transportation industries.
Our latest plant expansion has created the opportunity for us to provide our products to a broader range of customers here in the U.S. and internationally, McGinnis said in a news release.
He told Lube Report that the response to Dauberts entry into the lubricants industry as a source of exceptionally high quality calcium sulfonate a few years ago was overwhelming, and we ran into an issue where we were running pretty close to capacity earlier this year. As a result, we had to step back from some grease opportunities because we didnt want to get into a situation where we could be taking on too much demand for what we were designed to handle.
Daubert looked at its growth trajectory in early 2013, he said, and further invested in the future of its lubricant business by commissioning new equipment to increase its ability to supply the grease manufacturing community.
However, this production capacity also expands the availability of our SACI corrosion inhibitors used by formulators to create rust preventing coatings for a variety of industries, he pointed out. These products are also based on calcium sulfonate chemistry. We view this as an equally attractive opportunity. Even though its a different industry, there are many grease manufacturers out there who have a limited variety of rust prevention products in their portfolios, and we believe they will find our SACI product offering as a great addition to their business.
Daubert claims its proprietary process produces higher quality calcium sulfonate products with higher ratios of active material than commonly available. Its calcium sulfonate precursors – which are essentially semi-finished calcium sulfonate greases – come pre-gelled, after undergoing an optimized crystallization process in Dauberts facilities. Removing this step provides customers with a much simpler manufacturing process to create finished products, eliminating unnecessary risk and supply chain issues, the company stated in a news release. Calcium sulfonate grease is produced by gelling overbased calcium sulfonate in base oil, McGinnis said.