From fuel additives to face cream: the applications of materials chemistry

Specialist chemicals company Lubrizol uses a combination of advanced chemistry and market knowledge to develop a portfolio of quality products for the global transportation, industrial and consumer industries. The internationally successful company has branched out to many countries, including its expanding facility in Manchester, England.

Every day we rely on materials that have been specifically designed by chemists, from the clothes we wear, to the soap in our shower. Lubrizol is an international specialist chemicals company that combines market insights with advanced chemistry to deliver solutions to a wide range of customers and industries. The company established a large Manchester-based facility in 2004, and has continued to expand, providing raw materials to manufacturers around the world. Peter Bloyce, Global Marketing Director at Lubrizol, explained: “We work closely with many different industries – paints and coatings, printing and packaging, paper and textiles, digital printing, and plastics and composites – to deliver quality materials for various technologies. The ingredients that we develop can be used for anything from lubricant additives for engine oils to components for industrial paint, and we work hard to optimise formulations for our end users. We pride ourselves on understanding our market needs and are constantly improving our product range, performing routine application testing to ensure that our ingredients are of the highest quality.”

“We currently have around 70 people working in our Manchester facility – which is also the Lubrizol European research headquarters for our coatings business – and our site includes large laboratories as well as offices for our customer service, strategy and R&D departments. We are continually seeing growth within Lubrizol, and our Manchester lab alone has expanded by around 30 per cent since 2016. Our manufacturing sites are situated all across Europe, with numerous sites in the UK, as well as Spain, Germany and Belgium. We have opportunies to work with many universities, and are delighted to have sponsored various research projects within the University of Manchester, assisting in the advancement of material science and its applications. We are excited to be able to collaborate with other research scientists and are looking forward to continuing to grow in the future,” Peter concluded.

To learn more about Lubrizol, visit www.lubrizol.com