Dixie Chemical's products will make you feel better, eventually. The company produces specialty chemicals and intermediates that end up in food products and pharmaceuticals. It makes more than 60 products at its manufacturing facility in Texas, using processes such as synthesis, distillation, and hydrogenation. Dixie Chemical's products include epoxy agents for weapons and vehicles, trimethyl benzene for coatings and dyes, and ingredients for lubricants, industrial products, and paper products; they're sold in 40 countries worldwide. It also provides contract manufacturing, laboratory support, and project engineering services. Private equity group Glencoe Capital owns a majority interest in Dixie Chemical.

Turtle Wax would have been one of those kitchen table success stories, except Ben and Marie Hirsch concocted their polish in the bathtub. In the 1950s they changed the name of their company from Plastone Polish to Super Hard Shell and later to Turtle Wax. Now led jointly by their daughter Sondra Healy and son Denis John Healy Jr., the family-owned firm makes more than 1,250 products, including car waxes, polishes, and cleaners and sells them in 90 countries. Other products include engine treatments, vinyl and leather protectants, and odor removers. Turtle Wax also supplies bulk chemicals to car washes and operates some 20 car washes in the Chicago and Kansas City areas.

It's not overly touch-feely, but Dynea can be considered an expert on bonding. The company's primary products are resins for adhesives, most of which are used as a bonding agent in the manufacture of particle board, plywood, and oriented strand board (OSB). Its adhesives also are used in wood veneers, kitchen cabinets, furniture, and structural wood products such as joists. Dynea also produces resins used in industrial and decorative paper overlays. The company sells mainly to customers in Europe and Asia. It operates 40 manufacturing facilities in more than 20 countries. Two funds controlled by investment firm Industri Kapital control 90% of Dynea.

Start with a strong dose of analytical expertise in organic compounds, add more than a pinch of synthesis, and mix in high quality manufacturing operations. These are the key ingredients that ABITEC says make up its business. Enzyme producer ABITEC's services range from vegetable oil refining to customer-specific ingredients synthesis. In addition to emulsifiers for the food and flavor industries, the company makes oleochemical-based ethoxylates for industrial uses, emollients and emulsifiers for the personal care segment, and excipients for pharmaceutical companies. It is a part of the ingredients unit of Associated British Foods.

From poisoning garden pests to exfoliating dry skin, Lonza puts itself in the middle of things. As the US operations of its parent company, Lonza accounts for about a third of the Lonza Group's $2.5 billion in annual sales. While Lonza doesn't actually make consumer products, the company provides chemical ingredients and intermediates for the personal care, water treatment, pharmaceutical, and plastics industries, from its nine manufacturing and R&D locations throughout the US.

Willamette Valley makes a wide landscape of synthetic paints, primers, sealers, and adhesives for the wood products industry. It also provides metering, dispensing, and application equipment. The company's divisions include Canadian Willamette, Tapel Willamette (a Chilean coatings subsidiary), Idaho Milling and Grain, and Eclectic Products (adhesives, spackle, and so forth). Willamette Valley has manufacturing operations and subsidiaries in Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Oregon in the US as well as in Canada and Chile; it also provides services to European and Asian customers.

ELANTAS PDG has a long business pedigree when it comes to making protective and performance-enhancing electronic coatings, varnishes, and resins. Although scholars might take issue, the company claims that "founder P. D. George coined the word 'Pedigree' in 1919 to denote quality." Etymology aside, the company -- which is owned by German conglomerate ALTANA -- makes wire coatings, insulating varnishes, and encapsulating resins designed to insulate, protect, and improve the performance of wires and other electronic components. ELANTAS PDG (formerly called P. D. George Corporation) also makes resins used in other electronic products and applications, including banding tape, adhesives, and laminating resins.

Talk about carbon-based life forms -- Tokai Carbon lives on the stuff. The company's carbon products include carbon black, a reinforcement and coloring material used in car tires, industrial rubber products, paints, and inks; and artificial-graphite electrodes, which are used in electric-arc steelmaking furnaces. Tokai also makes specialty carbon products (glassy carbon, carbon brushes) and friction materials (used in clutches and brakes). In addition, the company has other operations in areas including real estate rental and cargo-handing. Tokai Carbon operates facilities in Asia, Europe, and North America.

Ecolab Inc. develops and markets products and services for the hospitality, foodservice, healthcare, and light industrial markets in the United States and internationally. It offers cleaning and sanitizing products and programs, as well as pest elimination, maintenance, and repair services primarily to hotels and restaurants, healthcare and educational facilities, quick service (fast-food and convenience store) units, grocery stores, commercial and institutional laundries, light industry, dairy plants and farms, food and beverage processors, and the vehicle wash industry. The company was founded in 1923 and is headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Dynaction isn't the newest Saturday morning cartoon show -- it's a maker of fine and specialty chemicals through its 70% holding in Produits Chimiques Auxiliaires et de Synth賥 (PCAS). Its products are made for the pharmaceutical sector, primarily, as well as for makers of personal care and fragrance products. More than half of the company's sales are generated outside France. It previously had made power transmissions for heavy industrial use (through subsidiary CMD Engrenages et R餵cteurs) and had other non-chemical businesses, but Dynaction sold off the businesses from 2004-06 and now operates almost entirely through PCAS. Company chairman Christian Moretti holds about 15% of Dynaction.

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