sition of organosilanes maker Silar Laboratories, a move that doubled its manufacturing and laboratory capabilities.
Bell, a Ph. D. chemist, joined MPD two
years ago after stints working in oil-field
chemicals for Halliburton and International Specialty Products. He was brought
on board by Addison Capital Partners, a
private equity firm that had just acquired
the Trevose, Pa.-based company.
MPD had been around for more than
35 years and was in good shape when he
joined, Bell says. “You don’t survive the
downturns in that period unless you have
a real niche,” he points out. But Bell and
the new owners thought that MPD had the
potential to do more.
The opportunity came along just a few
months later when Silar Labs became available. MPD’s expertise was in acrylates and
fluorine chemistry, and Bell saw the opportunity to add a new branch of chemistry
with applications in markets his firm already
served. MPD conducts research and small-scale chemistry at its Trevose headquarters
and does some scale-up in North Carolina.
Silar brings an R&D site in Scotia, N. Y., and a
manufacturing plant in Acme, N.C.
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THE RESULT, Bell says, is that MPD can
now offer quantities ranging from grams to
multiple tons. “A lot of organizations make
that statement, but very few can really do
it internally,” he notes. More important,
the joining of carbon- and silicon-based
chemistry has opened up the synthetic possibilities at MPD.
“I’ve joked with my carbon chemists
that we needed to shake up their thinking
a little; adding some silane expertise has
certainly achieved that,” he says.
Indeed, more interdisciplinary research
is one of Bell’s two main goals for MPD.
Soon after the Silar purchase, he says, MPD
secured two R&D agreements for new materials that meld silicon and carbon chemistry.
The company is already scaling them up. Bell
has his eye on yet another chemistry platform, although he won’t disclose what it is.
His other big goal is to intensify MPD’s
interaction with customers. Of course,
as an R&D-oriented company, MPD has
always discussed projects with its clients.
But Bell wants to step it up a notch, opening MPD’s doors wider to reveal the 35
years of experience that it brings to bear in
the specialty chemical industry.
He’s also tweaking the firm’s business
model so it can better share new product
development risk with customers. Basic
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Time-based spectral data acquired by the Nicolet 6700
