Cabot Corp Completes Expansion Project for Inkjet Facility

[Anonymous]

Cabot Corp Completes Expansion Project for Inkjet Facility

Cabot Corp. , a Boston-based producer of aqueous inkjet pigments and other products – including rubber, carbon blacks, an additive to improve batteries in micro-hybrid vehicles – has completed a $10 million project to expand the capacity of its Haverhill inkjet facility.

The expansion project started last summer, and was officially completed at the end of March 2012. A spokeswoman for the company said it has about 80 of its 4,100 worldwide employees at the Haverhill plant, and expects to boost the production staff there by about 25.

Cabot, which was founded in 1882 and currently operates 39 plants in 21 countries, says it already holds 40 percent of the world’s market share of dispersions for aqueous inkjet applications. The expansion will allow the company to double its capacity of polymer and pigment lines to help meet increased demand for office and commercial inkjet dispersions. According to a statement from the company, inkjet technology is expected to grow by more than 35 percent annually over the next three years.

“With color inkjet printing making in-roads into sizeable markets for transactional, book, direct mail, graphics, labels, packaging and signage, we see the potential for growth across a variety of printing applications,” said Julie Planchet, general manager, Cabot inkjet colorants.

The company’s disparate products – which also include fumed silica, aerogel, elastomer composites, and cesium formate drilling fluids – are all based on three core competencies: the making and handling of very fine particles; modification of the surfaces of very fine particles to alter their functionality; and the design of particles to impart specific properties to a composite.

In March, the company began making a carbon performance additive to boost the lifetime and performance of lead-acid batteries in micro-hybrid vehicles.In January, it sold off its super metals business to Australia-based Global Advanced Metals for at least $450 million.

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June 12, 2012 at 7:53 AM