What are 's Business Segments?
We primarily provide products of two general types: those producing chemical light,
including training ammunition; and specialty chemicals.
· Products producing chemical light rely on a chemical reaction known as
chemiluminescence. The base product is known as a ‘‘light stick’’
and is typically six inches in length. A light stick is a translucent flexible
plastic tube that is partly filled with one chemical ingredient and also with
a glass container (‘‘ampoule’’) that contains a complementary
reactive chemical. When the tube is bent enough to break the glass ampoule, the
chemicals contained within the plastic tube mix and light is generated. Chemiluminescent
products come in varying shapes, sizes and functions and provide light in different
colors, intensities and durations. These include:
o Light sticks that come in lengths ranging from 1.5 inches to 15 inches and having
durations for specified light output that range from 5 minutes to 24 hours. Colors
emitted include red, blue, white, yellow, green, orange and infrared.
o Components to training and tactical ammunition that provide day/night marking
and illumination capabilities. Day/night marking rounds increase the effectiveness
of weapons training by providing a night-time training ability where, in many
cases, one did not exist before. Chemical light munitions are preferable to traditional
tracer or training rounds for two reasons. Traditional tracer or pyrotechnic training
munitions contain fire-producing elements that can start range fires. Additionally,
traditional tracer or pyrotechnic training munitions experience ‘‘duds’’,
or unexploded rounds. These unexploded rounds present future safety hazards and
must be found and defused. Chemical light training ammunition payloads cannot
start range fires and do not represent future safety hazards from unexploded rounds,
making their use not only more economical, but safer for military personnel.
· Our specialty chemical products support a wide variety of applications
in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, defense and nutritional supplements industries.
Products also include certain components used in the manufacture of our chemical
light products.
We do not sell products as novelties.
We manufacture products in West Springfield, MA; Bound Brook, NJ; and Aix-en-Provence,
France.
Services we provide, on a very limited basis, include training on the proper utilization
of our battlefield effects simulator devices and providing live training exercises.
In these exercises we hire and provide “battlefield actors”, people
trained to act as insurgents or the indigenous population. The “actors”
we hire and train may have lived in the country or speak the language of the country
in which the training is simulated to take place, making the training as realistic
as possible. In addition, our specialty chemicals business provides R&D /
product development assistance to our customers.
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