Union Specialties Manufacturing Monitors NMP to Protect Consumers
The Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (Proposition 65) originating out of California’s Environmental Protection Agency continues to document new chemicals that are forbidden from manufacture and use due to toxicity to human reproductive systems. The precedent established by Prop 65 has become the requirement for many industries’ products including the automotive industry.
SITUATION
A Massachusetts firm, Union Specialties, Inc. uses its Agilent 5973/6890 GC/MS purchased from Overbrook Scientific, Inc. to verify that the urethane polymer they manufacture in Newburyport does not contain N-methyl-pyrrolidone (NMP). Dana Charron, director of polymer technology said “One of our customers wanted to make sure that NMP could have no place in an automobile. Urethane, a polymer that’s used in flooring, plastic coatings, and the automotive industry, requires testing using analytical instrumentation as do other types of polymers”.
Union Specialties has been an Overbrook Scientific, Inc. customer for years, and originally chose Overbrook because he wanted more than an instrument; he knew post-installation support and service was important for the long haul. “The price of the GCMS was competitive”, says Dana but he was particularly interested in after-installation support. He was looking for an outsourcing partner that could provide the service, support, training, repair and maintenance of the instrument. Union Specialties has Overbrook do a yearly PM to maximize the utility of the instrument.
Ted Palashis, president of Overbrook Scientific, Inc. says “Over years of experience, we realized that there is tremendous value in offering applications-driven service whether it be instrumentation, post-installation services, support, PMs or training. We’ve also found with our contacts in the field and breadth of experience we’ve gotten a fair amount of consulting work strictly by word of mouth for both national and international projects ranging from cost analysis for outfitting labs in Saudi Arabia to doing market research in drug discovery.
Overbrook’s service engineers continue to demonstrate responsiveness when Dana has called, and new services have been customized to ensure Union Specialties gets the most out of their original investment. When additional personnel was brought on board at Union, Overbrook organized multi-day training classes, both at the Overbrook Scientific lab facility, and on site at Union Specialties, Newburyport facility. Both theoretical and hands-on practical training was customized to fit their objectives and lab operations.
BACKGROUND
About Union Specialties, Inc.
The history of Union Specialties, a family-owned company (www.unionspecialties.com), currently in its fifth generation, is long and distinguished. In 1941 John B. Greene founded Union Chemical Co., Inc. in Salem, Massachusetts. It's commitment to technology and customer service allowed it to continue a strong record of growth in a highly competitive leather world. The slogan, "In Union There Is Strength," was introduced during the company's tenth anniversary year. In 1952, the company was producing manufacturers’ leather finishes, topcoats, binders, and dressing with a distribution system throughout the country and in all major foreign markets. In 1994, Union Specialties became one of the first leather chemical manufacturers to be awarded the ISO 9000 and then ISO 9001:2000 rating. Currently international operations comprise approximately two thirds of all production in over forty-nine countries.
About Overbrook Scientific, Inc.
Overbrook Scientific, Inc. (www.overbrookscientific.com) is an independent instrumentation and services company which is organized along two lines of business -- Instrument Compliance Services and Engineering Instrumentation Solutions. Featured instrumentation includes a line of Robotic Autosamplers and Phytronix Technologies' laser diode thermal desorption ion source (LDTD) technology.
Services have expanded over the years to include Contract Maintenance, Preventive Maintenance (PM), Qualifications (IQ/OQ/PQ), Per Incident, Training and Market Research knowledge and information for laboratories. Overbrook Scientific counts independent and nationally ranked laboratories, start-ups, universities and research institutions, biotech and pharma, environmental and material testing labs, CROs, the US Dept. of Justice and many others as clients.