Winton Products is into solving mysteries of gaseous proportions. The company produces chemical-type leak detectors for finding leaks in systems under gas or air pressure, including pipe joints, tube connections, air lines, cylinders, tanks, evaporators, and condensers. Product brands include Sherlock Fluids and Seamtest Concentrate Fluids.

Chemtura would like to be the future of chemicals making. The company ranks among the top specialty chemical companies in the US, along with the likes of Ecolab and Hexion, and among the leading plastics additives maker globally. Aside from plastic additives, Chemtura holds niche-leading positions in petroleum additives, flame retardants, and swimming pool chemicals. Its other products include urethanes and crop protection chemicals. Just more than half of its total sales come from outside the US. In 2009 Chemtura's US operations, faced with significantly decreased sales volumes and the resultant declining liquidity, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

General Chemical Performance Products can be found in your water pipes, in your refrigerator, and inside your medicine cabinet. General Chemical manufactures performance chemicals for such industries as food additives and pharmaceuticals (active ingredients for drugs), environmental services (water treatment), high technology (chemicals for semiconductor manufacturing), and chemicals processing. In 2009 private equity group American Securities paid $675 million including debt to buy General Chemical's parent company, GenTek, and its subsidiaries.

H. Heller & Co.'s loading dock is where the rubber meets the road. The company manufactures plastic and rubber raw materials through affiliated companies American Thermoplastics, Heller Performance Polymers, and Gulf Performance Polymers. Heller manufactures thermoplastic resins, recycled plastics, and rubber compounds and additives; it also provides custom blending and compounding. The company serves customers in the packaging, film, wire and cable, and sheet and molding industries throughout Canada, Mexico, and the US.

NCH has been cleaning up for years, and like everyone else, it's been using soaps and detergents to do so. The company makes and sells about 450 chemical, maintenance, repair, and supply products, including all kinds of cleaners, for customers in more than 50 countries throughout the world. NCH markets its products through a direct sales force to companies in the agricultural, home-improvement, industrial, recreational, and utility markets. Other products include fasteners, welding supplies, plumbing parts, lubricants, and metal-working fluids. Descendants of founder Milton Levy own the company, which was established in 1919.

Henkel focuses on home and hearth. The international company makes branded products for laundry and home care (Persil, Purex, Pril), cosmetics and toiletries (Schwarzkopf, Fa, Dial), and adhesives (Loctite, Ceresit, Teroson). Most of Henkel's operations are centered in Europe, although its ownership of The Dial Corporation gives it access to the US market. Henkel serves customers in more than 125 countries from offices extending nearly everywhere but Greenland and Australia. Relatives of the founding Henkel family control the company, which began in 1876. Amid an economic downturn in the US and abroad, Henkel in 2009 initiated a long-term strategy with financial targets that extend into 2012.

Brown bears, black bears, snow-white polar bears -- BEHR Process Corporation manufactures all the colors in the bear rainbow. The company produces coatings such as paint, stains, and varnishes that are sold primarily through The Home Depot; its best-selling line is exclusive to the home-improvement warehouse giant. The company was founded in 1947 out of Otho Behr's garage as a marketer of linseed oil. It grew into a stain and varnish manufacturer and, by the mid-80s, began to make architectural paints. BEHR also owns Masterchem Industries, which makes the primer KILZ. Home-improvement materials company Masco owns BEHR.

O'Sullivan Films is making its comeback. Formerly O'Sullivan Corporation, the company was sold to The Geon Company (a predecessor of PolyOne) in 1999. In 2007 the new entity, branded O'Sullivan Films, reemerged from PolyOne's divestiture of its Engineered Films business unit. Jointly owned by management and an investor group formed by Matrix Capital, the firm provides customized polymer films used in applications such as automotive instrument and door panels, flooring, wall coverings, and pool liners. In addition, O'Sullivan offers film-finishing technologies including embossing, laminating, and painting. Its customers serve global auto makers like Ford, General Motors, Honda, and Toyota.

Van Diest Supply Company has tied itself up with a corn belt. The agricultural chemical distributor and maker sells its wares under the Corn Belt Products brand name. Those wares include herbicides, pesticides, adjuvants (which enhance the properties of herbicides and pesticides), and spray drift management products (which keep the herbicides and pesticides where they're intended to be and not drifting off to harm the surrounding environment). With a fleet of about 200 trucks and pickups, Van Diest ships its products from about a dozen distribution centers spread throughout an 18-state area of the Midwest. The family-operated company was founded by president Bob Van Diest in 1956.

Houghton has been serving the metalworking, automotive, and steel industries, and a variety of other markets with the development and production of specialty chemicals, oils, and lubricants.A privately held company, Houghton is headquartered in Valley Forge, PA and maintains manufacturing and research facilities throughout the world.Houghton offers a scope and depth of technical services unequaled in the industry. Through our unique FLUIDCARE Chemical Management program, Houghton customers are finding new ways to save on overall process chemical and disposal costs.

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