COLUMBIA, MD – W. R. Grace & Co. has started construction of a new colloidal silica plant at its European flagship manufacturing and R&D center in Worms, Germany. This investment will support growing demand and increasing technical requirements of customers. It will broaden Grace’s technology platforms, significantly increase capacity for Grace’s LUDOX^® portfolio of colloidal silica products, and add flexibility to the company’s global manufacturing network. The expansion is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2020.

The new LUDOX colloidal silica plant will accelerate the development of new LUDOX colloidal silica applications into a wide spectrum of industrial applications including catalysts, functional coatings, and precision investment casting; support increasing demand in this high-growth, high-value specialty silica segment; and improve alternative sourcing and logistics capabilities to better serve customers in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

The LUDOX brand is recognized as a market-leading colloidal silica technology. Cited in over 25,000 patents, LUDOX colloidal silica is one of the most versatile and functional silica-based technologies available.

“We are seeing very strong demand for LUDOX colloidal silica, and most important, we are helping many customers develop entirely new products and markets,” said Sandra Wisniewski, President, Grace Materials Technologies. “Grace is strategically investing to increase capacity for a variety of products. This new manufacturing facility will allow us to better serve both existing and new customers with differentiated silica technologies that deliver value to accelerate commercialization of their new products.”

Grace’s Worms, Germany, R&D and manufacturing facility opened in 1972 and has since become a center of manufacturing excellence for silica as well as catalyst and adsorbent technologies.

Grace is a leading global supplier of catalysts and engineered materials. The company’s two business segments — Catalysts Technologies and Materials Technologies — provide innovative products, technologies, and services to customers around the world.