Georgia-Pacific Chemicals to distribute Bitrez Curaphen speciality phenolics across United States, Canada and Mexico
Bitrez Ltd, the UK’s leading manufacturer of specialist polymers and chemicals has announced the appointment of Georgia-Pacific Chemicals as exclusive distributor for its Curaphen speciality phenolics across the United States, Canada and Mexico. The appointment extends to all but a small group of existing Bitrez customers. Georgia-Pacific Chemicals, a subsidiary of Georgia-Pacific LLC, has decades of experience in coatings and other markets and manufactures its own portfolio of proven phenolic products, including FRP resins, air dry and thermosetting systems, aqueous dispersions for lower VOC as well as crosslinkers for powder coatings.
The low free monomer Curaphen range, is a series of industry-leading phenolic polymer resins that includes specialist grades offering low free phenol and some with formaldehyde contents of less than 0.1%.
The Curaphen range is also gaining traction in other businesses across the globe including aerospace, rail and construction where it is favoured as a matrix resin. As well as being flame retardant with excellent smoke and toxicity properties, its light weight and good mechanical and structural strength, make it ideal for interior components in aircraft, trains and buildings.
The deal with Georgia-Pacific Chemicals comes hot on the heels of UK-based Bitrez winning the prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation. The awards are made annually by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and are only given for the highest levels of excellence. Earlier this year, Bitrez was crowned Chemicals Northwest Manufacturer of the Year 2019.
Paul Jones, Managing Director of Bitrez Ltd, says; “We are very excited to be working with Georgia-Pacific Chemicals LLC – a well-established organisation with an excellent reputation. We already export across Europe so it’s great news that Georgia-Pacific Chemicals will help us extend our reach in the USA, Canada and Mexico. Creative chemistry is our lifeblood and it drives us to develop innovative solutions to fill the gap provided by products that have been withdrawn from the market due to regulatory reform.”
“The addition of the Bitrez products to our North American offerings augments our ability to help our customers address regulatory challenges,” says Robert Schlager, Manager of Georgia-Pacific Chemicals coatings business. “We are impressed with the quality and innovation of their products, the quality of the Bitrez organisation and are honoured to be associated with them. Our relationship supports our vision of offering our customers the best technology available to meet their needs.”
Bitrez manufactures a wide range of high-performance synthetic resins and matrix systems used by world-class companies across the globe. Market sectors include specialist protective coatings, aerospace, defence, automotive and construction. Georgia-Pacific Chemicals manufactures and markets a broad range of high-performance products for industries including aerospace and transportation composites, asphalt, adhesives, building products and other speciality applications.
Bitrez’s manufacturing plant, which is COMAH [Seveso] and ISO 9001/14001/18001 compliant, comprises of numerous reaction units from 3000 – 30,000 litre capacity, along with exceptional cooling facilities to accommodate high reactivity resins.
