In 2016, ELANTAS PDG was named a “Top Workplace” for
the fourth year in a row. It has approximately 180 em-
ployees who view themselves as a community, and a low
turnover rate among staff. This is thanks in large part
to the leadership team led by Dr. Susan W. Graham. Since
the beginning of 2004, Graham, who has a doctorate
in chemistry, has headed ELANTAS PDG and has helped
shape the company’s transformation. In 2015, the renowned
industry association IEEE granted her the Golden
Omega Award, honoring her for her corporate gover-
nance and her commitment to the electrical and electronics
industry as well as to the betterment of the community
where the plant is located, in St. Louis. Previously the prize
had been given to such illustrious personalities as Dave
Packard from Hewlett Packard and James van Allen, who
discovered the eponymous radiation belts around Earth.
customers in keeping with the required
application. “The old plant was something
like an oversized kitchen blender,” says
Susan Graham. “And as in a home kitchen,
liquids invariably sprayed out.” After
eight years of operation, the new blending
facility is still one of the cleanest areas
on the grounds. Separate tanks for each
raw material in the plant minimize
the risk
of cross contamination in the end product.
This means less cleaning and fewer filter
changes, which saves time, reduces waste,
and improves the safety for the employees.
Customers can rely on faster delivery
and top quality.
Targeted acquisitions have also expanded
the technological basis, for example for
the manufacture of resins used to impreg-
nate parts in heavy electric motors. With
the new emulsion reactor, ELANTAS PDG
has, since 2005, manufactured a water-
emulsified insulating material that does not
need organic solvent. This not only protects
the environment, but also enhances
occupational safety for the employees
and makes it easier for customers to process
the material because they no lon-
ger have to deal with solvent.
Innovations flourish in this climate. With
ELAN-Film™ flexible electric insulation,
the ELANTAS Group has had a new and
promising product since 2016. It was
developed in St. Louis, where researchers,
put simply, managed to coat flexible
plastic films with liquid wire enamel. This
film insulates entire wire bundles from
one another and at the same time shields
them from the motor’s steel core. By the
way, ELAN-Film™ insulation is produced at
a U.S. facility of ECKART Effect Pigments
in Schererville, Indiana. The sister company
had purchased a pigment manufacturer
there, but had no use for its coating plant.
ELANTAS PDG certainly did.
22 Sustainability Incorporated