Lucite International has its roots firmly planted in plastics. The top producer of acrylic monomers (ahead of Rohm and Haas, Degussa, and Asahi Kasei) with quarter-share of the world market, Lucite International has a history that dates back to the discovery of methyl methacrylate (MMA) by an ICI chemist in 1934 and DuPont's opening of the first US plant three years later. MMA is the main building block of acrylic materials. The company's brand names include Lucite, Perspex, and Lucite Tufcoat. Charterhouse Capital, which had owned 78% of Lucite, first put it up for sale in 2006, meeting with no success. It finally managed to bring off a sale to Mitsubishi Rayon two years later.

General Chemical Industrial Products makes soda, but don't be tempted to take a drink. The company produces soda ash, which is a raw ingredient in the manufacture of everything from glass to soap and detergent to textiles. General Chemical's lone production facility and mine are located in Wyoming; the company owns 75% of the facility, with glass container manufacturer Owens-Illinois owning the rest. In 2008 General Chemical acquired the mica production assets of Zemex. Soon after that deal, Tata Chemicals bought the company for about $1 billion, at which point Zemex was spun off to General Chemical's shareholders.

C. L. Hauthaway & Sons manufactures finishing materials and advanced polymers used by textiles and coatings makers. The company makes coatings resins (polyurethanes), leather finishes (adhesion promoters, basecoat polymers), and textile finishes (flame retardant polymers and compounds); it also offers custom polyurethane manufacturing. Hauthaway serves customers in the US and abroad in such industrial coatings markets as flooring, automotive interior plastics, leather finishing, and other industrial maintenance industries, and it's expanding into the industrial film-converting market. The company was formed by Charles L. Hauthaway in 1852 as a manufacturer of protective coatings for shoes.

Rodda Paint, one of the largest paint manufacturers in the Pacific Northwest, makes paints and other coatings that it sells in its 45 stores located throughout Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. In the summer of 2004 Rodda joined forces with an even larger regional paints maker, Canadian company Cloverdale Paint. The two companies merged operations but planned to keep using separate names in their respective countries and to maintain separate management teams. Art Rodda founded Rodda Paint in 1932.

Sumter Coatings will not render asunder its mission to coat and protect surfaces. The company makes coatings, primers, and sealers for industrial and specialty applications. Its products include metal primers, bake enamel systems, and coatings for metal. Sumter Coatings also provides laboratory and warehousing services, as well as customized coatings. Formed in 1996, the company develops products for structural steel companies, propane tanks, and the ornamental iron industry, among others.

In the world of specialty chemicals production, Prince Minerals wouldn't mind being king. The company turns natural minerals into additives and pigments used in animal feed, bricks, cement, ceramics, fertilizer, foundries, glass, steel, water treatment, and other industrial applications. Serving customers throughout the Americas, it operates six processing facilities that manufacture iron oxide, magnetite, olivine, silica, and zircon, among others. Prince Minerals is the North American subsidiary of Prince Mineral Holdings Corp., which is owned by private equity firm Palladium Equity Partners. UK-based sister subsidiary Prince Minerals Limited operates in Europe.

Vystar is vying to be a health care star. The company makes Vytex, a natural rubber latex product that retains the positive properties of latex (strength, comfort, widespread availability, good barrier) without producing the allergic reaction that plagues about 20% of health care workers and more than 70% of patients. Vytex is used in health care supplies including surgical and exam gloves, probe covers, catheters, tubing, and adhesives. Non-medical uses include sponges, balloons, condoms, threads and other textiles, and mattresses. It can be inserted into the manufacturing process just like natural latex so customers don't have to reconfigure assembly lines. Vystar's goods are made by Revertex Malaysia.

Allvivo Vascular develops biomimetic surface materials -- coatings for biomedical and research instruments. Founded in 1999 to develop research being done at the University of Utah and incubated at the University of Alabama, Allvivo Vascular has graduated and moved to California. The company's primary target market is to provide coatings for stents used in coronary interventions. Its products enable researchers to control cells' reactions to contact with tools whether in lab experimentation or surgical implantation (both ex vivo and in vivo, thus the name allvivo).

MacDermid's brood of specialty chemicals is too broad to pigeonhole. The company makes a range of chemicals used in electronics (for etching and to imprint electrical patterns on circuit boards), graphic arts (for image transfers), metal and plastics finishing, and oil and gas exploration. It markets and produces more than 5,000 proprietary chemical compounds used for cleaning, coating, electroplating, etching, mechanical galvanizing, and rust retarding applications. MacDermid also distributes chemical supplies of other companies and produces horizontal processing equipment used in circuit board production and chemical machining.

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.

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