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ESCO chemists work polyurethane formulations the way production actually runs — on metering and mixing equipment, not only in a cup. We adjust existing systems and develop new ones so the chemistry, the process window, and the machine agree.
Most “bad part” problems started as reactivity, viscosity, ratio, heat, filler, or component issues that nobody tuned for the way you mix. That is this service.
A lab trial answers whether a given system will run on ESCO equipment. The Applications Lab takes a part idea through contract manufacturing and hands off a working cell.
Formulation services and consultancy sit between those two. You already have a chemistry — or a part target — and it is not behaving. We diagnose, adjust, and document a system that processes. You can stop there, or carry the same formulation into a trial or a full Applications Lab program.
Custom systems houses sell a drum and a Technical Data Sheet (TDS). Equipment-only OEMs sell a machine and a demo. The expensive middle is a formulation that has to live on a real meter-mix-dispense process: cream and gel times that match the pour, viscosities the pumps can hold, a ratio the machine can keep, fillers that do not settle or chew the head, and a heat of reaction the part can survive.
ESCO’s edge is both sides of that middle: chemists who formulate, and engineers who have spent decades building low-pressure dynamic, filler-fed, high-pressure RIM, and elastomer equipment. We do not hand you a recipe that only works in a paper cup.
| The problem You See | What formulation consultancy typically changes |
| Hand mix to machine mix | The most common scale-up failure. Cup recipes hide poor wetting, air, off-ratio corners, and heat. We rebuild the system for dynamic or impingement mixing. |
| Reaction is too fast | Catalyst package, index, and component temperatures so the mix can leave the head, fill the mold, and still flow. A cup that “snapped” was often never designed for machine residence time. |
| Reaction is too slow | Cure and rise timing, post-cure window, and surface tack. Slow systems waste cycle time, trap air, and produce parts that look finished and are not. |
| System runs too hot | Exotherm control for thick sections, packed molds, and large pours. Heat that is fine in a 200-gram cup will scorch, crack, or shrink a production part. |
| Physical properties miss the spec | Hardness, tensile, tear, elongation, density, compression, abrasion, and cell structure — moved with the process window, not only with a new polyol on paper. |
| System is not reliable lot to lot | Moisture sensitivity, filler settling, catalyst drift, temperature sensitivity, and processability limits. A reliable system is one a shift can run on Monday and on Friday. |
| A component disappeared | Substitution and requalification when a polyol, isocyanate, curative, catalyst, or blowing agent is allocated, discontinued, or priced out. Same part target, new bill of materials. |
| Safety and handling | Moving off high-hazard curatives where a safer package will still process, reducing solvent-flush load, managing isocyanate exposure in the mix method, and writing a process operators can follow. |
| Cost is killing the part | Index, filler, density, and raw-material swaps that protect the physicals you actually sell. Cost-out that ignores processability just moves the scrap into a different column. |
A formulation that works on the bench is not a production system. Hand mixing tolerates long pot life, forgiving ratios, and heat that leaves the cup before it damages the part. Machine mixing shortens residence time, demands a stable viscosity pair, and puts mix energy in a head instead of a stir stick.
Consultancy on this conversion typically covers:
We start with the part, the current bill of materials, the mix method, and the failure mode. Scrap photos, pot-life numbers, and “it used to work” are all useful. NDA in place before proprietary chemistry arrives. [CONFIRM IP language]
Chemists change what the process needs changed — catalyst, index, polyol blend, filler package, moisture management, or a replacement component — and check that the new system can still be metered.
Where the question is processability, we run the adjusted system on production-style metering and mixing equipment in the ESCO laboratory. That is a lab trial used as a tool inside formulation work, not a replacement for this page.
You leave with a documented formulation window: ratio, temperatures, reactivity, target physicals, and the mix method it was proven on. If the next step is a machine, contract production, or a full Applications Lab program, that is a separate scope.
| Lab Trial | Formulation & consultancy | Applications Lab |
| Prove this system on ESCO equipment. Leave with a yes, a no, or a different machine class. | Fix or rebuild the chemistry so it processes. Leave with a documented, machine-capable formulation. | Take a part idea through formulate, process, machine, contract manufacturing, and handoff of a working cell. |
This page is formulation and process consultancy, not a branded systems-house catalog. When a program needs ongoing blend volume, that is scoped separately — often inside contract manufacturing.
Your chemistry stays yours. Work is done under confidentiality. [CONFIRM final IP/NDA wording with counsel.]
Yes, when you have the right to have it processed. We optimize processability. We do not reverse-engineer a supplier's trade secret for resale.
No. Plenty of formulation work stops at a processable system. If the honest next step is ESCO equipment or an Applications Lab program, we will say so.
Send the part target, the current mix method, and the failure you are seeing — too fast, too slow, too hot, off-ratio, off-spec physicals, unreliable lots, a missing component, a safety or cost constraint, or a hand-mix system that dies on a machine.
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