New Laboratory at the Ciba West Memphis plant In June, Ciba opened the company’s new West Memphis laboratory facility. Construction on the $1.3 million, 7,000 square-foot facility began last December. This advanced new facility was constructed to support existing and future product lines that will be manufactured at the site. It houses both the Process Development and Quality Control Departments, allowing the two to work closely together.

Process Development is responsible for implementing and improving manufacturing processes, as well as plant support, quality analysis, quality control, and analytical development. The Quality Control Department is responsible for daily sampling and analysis of manufactured products prior to shipment to our customers.

West Memphis is Ciba’s principal site for the manufacture of specialty monomers and DADMAC monomer. It is also a major production site for the production of quaternary monomers and Ciba® AGEFLOC® polymers. At the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Bill Leber, NAFTA Head for the business, commented that the addition of the new facility, which contains both laboratory and office space, is critical to the company’s operations in West Memphis. He focused on the fact that nearly $40 million has been spent at the site since 1998.

ICE Show paper on polymerization kinetics and Tg Doctor Liliana Craciun presented the paper "Radical Polymerization of Some Bridged- and Fused-Ring Cycloalkyl Methacrylates: Polymerization Kinetics and Polymer Properties” at International Coatings Expo, Philadelphia in November 2003. In it, she described the polymerization kinetics of some cycloalkyl methacrylates, measured by ESR spectroscopy. She also reported on the polymers’ thermal properties and decomposition behavior in relation to their tacticities and side chain structures.