Lubrizol
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lubrizol is a lubricant additive company based in Wickliffe, Ohio. It was a member of the Nifty Fifty stock grouping in the 1970s. Lubrizol is involved in supplying and producing technologies that improves products in the industrial, consumer markets, and global transportations. Lubrizol recently acquired Noveon, a specialty chemicals company, and they are now involved in that field as well.
[edit] Founding
Lubrizol was founded in 1928 by Kelvin, Kent, and Vincent Smith, as well as Alex and Frank Nason. The company was founded in Cleveland, Ohio. The Smith's father had helped establish another chemical company, Dow Chemical, and all three of them at worked there, so they were already involved in chemistry. The company was founded under the name The Graphite Oil Products Company.
[edit] History
Lubrizol's first product was a suspended graphite and oil product designed to make car springs quiet. It was called Lubri-graph. After this success, the focus turned to the residue produced by mineral oil in car engines. This residue often stuck the pistons in engines or overheated the engine, and the company produced Lubrizol, a lubricant with chlorine that the Smiths and Nasons found cleared the residue. This product would later become the company's name.
General Motors, prompted by Alex Nason, added Lubrizol to its list of recommended products. Lubrizol was used during the second World War by the military, and their performance standards were set at this point. Lubrizol's attention turned away from lubricants and over to chemicals and rust inhibitors that slowed oil breakdown. By the end of the war, Lubrizol was in the possession of many patents that were invaluable in producing lubricants. At the approach of the turning point of the 20th century, Lubrizol was the leader in petroleum additives. 10 years later, Lubrizol went public.
As regulations were set on oil in regard to the environment, new additives were needed for new unleaded gas and other new products. Lubrizol, of course, profited. The oil crisis of the 1970's was also profitable; the new, more efficient cars required lubricants, transmission fluids, and fuel additives. The Althus Corporation, a lithium battery maker, was acquired by Lubrizol in 1979 and the company moved into biotechnology. 6 years later, the Agrigenetics Corporation was purchased by Lubrizol. Lubrizol's biotechnology efforts turned to genetically altered plants. This field offered huge patent opportunity when compared to the now effective, and therefore having limited growth potential, field of additives. This business was not as profitable as it seemed, however, and the Agrigenetics Corporation was sold to Mycogen.
Lubrizol experimented with some other fields, however in 1996 they turned back to additives. The company had established two joint ventures with China, as well as acquiring six other companies by 1998. Profits shrunk in the next two years, leading to an 11% cut in the workforce and a 20% production decrease. 2000 saw the purchase of RPM's Alox metalworking additive business, and the next year, ROSS Chem, a private company involved in making antifoam and defoaming agents for textiles, food, metalworking, inks, and coatings. 2002 saw three purchases; Kabo International, a defoaming company, Chemron, involved in specialty surfactants, and Lambent Technologies, which was involved with silicone defoaming.
Lubrizol bought another company in 2004, Avecia, which focused on color and pigment disperants in inks and coatings. Also in 2004, a large $1.8 billion dollar purchase of Noveon, a company that produced additives for food and pharmaceuticals. This purchase divided Lubrizol into two focuses, the old Lubrizol, which focused on lubricant additives (called LZA), and Noveon, which focused on specialty chemicals.
