..: | Epoxy Industry| :..

As of 2006, the epoxy industry amounts to more than US $5 billion in North America and about US $15 billion world-wide. The China market has been grown rapidly and the market size would be more than 30 of the total world-wide market. It is made up of approximately 50–100 manufacturers of basic or commodity epoxy resins and hardeners of which the big 3 are Hexion (formerly Resolution Performance Products, formerly Shell Development Company; whose epoxy tradename is "Epon"), The Dow Chemical Company (tradename "D.E.R."), Huntsman Corporations Advanced Materials business unit (formerly Vantico, formerly Ciba Specialty Chemical; tradename "Araldite"). Very recently Huntsman corporation has been merged by Hexion (Apolo group). KUKDO Chemical is also one of the largest epoxy manufacturer in Asia region and recently their capacity has been increased up to 210,000MT/Y (Korea 150,000MT/Y, China 60,000 MT/Y and will be increased totally 300,000 MT/Y by 2009) Naya Plastic also has the capacity of over 250,000 MT/Y (Taiwan and China) which is mostly for captive use. The other 50 smaller epoxy manufacturers primarily produce epoxies only regionally (not world-wide), produce epoxy hardeners only, produce specialty epoxies, or produce epoxy modifiers.

These commodity epoxy manufacturers mentioned above typically do not sell epoxy resins in a form usable to smaller end users, so there is another group of companies that purchase epoxy raw materials from the major producers and then compounds (blends, modifies, or otherwise customizes) epoxy systems from these raw materials. These companies are known as "formulators". The majority of the epoxy systems sold are produced by these formulators and they comprise over 60 of the dollar value of the epoxy market. There are hundreds of ways that these formulators can modify epoxies — by adding mineral fillers (ex. talc, silica, alumina, etc.), by adding flexibilizers, viscosity reducers, colorants, thickeners, accelerators, adhesion promoters, etc. These modifications are made to reduce costs, to improve performance, and to improve processing convenience. As a result a typical formulator sells dozens or even thousands of formulations — each tailored to the requirements of a particular application or market.

The applications for epoxy based materials are extensive and include coatings, adhesives and composite materials such as those using carbon fiber and fiberglass reinforcements, (although polyester, vinyl ester, and other thermosetting resins are also used for glass-reinforced plastic). The chemistry of epoxies and the range of commercially available variations allows cure polymers to be produced with a very broad range of properties. In general, epoxies are known for their excellent adhesion, chemical and heat resistance, good to excellent mechanical properties and very good electrical insulating properties, but almost any property can be modified (for example silver-filled epoxies with good electrical conductivity are available, although epoxies are typically electrically insulating).

Epoxies find significant use in many applications including the following: