TAGS: Automotive Coatings Aerospace Coatings Plastic Coatings Industrial Coatings UV/EB Technology
An Interview with Miles Hutchings, CEO and Founding Partner of Amindon Inc.
"From idea to commercialization" – keeping up to its motto, Amindon Inc. provides research and development and commercialization services to the specialty chemicals industry. This company was founded in 2003 by former Ciba/BASF/Air Products and Chemical executives.
With the expertise of six Ph.D. scientists, Amindon provides the following advantages:
- Superior chemical know-how to design new chemical compounds and solve chemical problems.
- Chemical synthetic routes and provides sample quantities for your evaluation.
- Compliance with Government regulations to ensure necessary approvals to enter new markets and applications.
- Develops and optimizes production processes to produce commercial material.
- Resources to protect your intellectual property, including patent services.
- Frees up your resources so that you can concentrate on what you do best.
- Extensive client and toll manufacturing network to enable business development and production to grow your business.
They have gained expertise in producing antioxidants, UVAs, HALS, flame retardants, corrosion inhibitors, antimicrobials, specialty polymers, pigments and dyes, and aroma chemicals. The principal industries served by Amindon are mainly in Lubricants, Coatings, Paints, Inks, Plastics, Adhesives, Cosmetics, Personal Care, and Electronics.
Let us hear directly from Miles Hutchings, CEO and founding partner of Amindon about what his company has in store for its clients.
#1. Could you please summarize Amindon’s value proposition and core services?
Amindon is a unique provider of
New Product Development and Business Development services for the specialty chemicals industries. We manage the complete product life cycle from idea to commercialization. Our 30+ years of industry experience and track record of successful new product introductions provide our clients with both technical expertise and access to our extensive client base for new business development. We also have a global toll manufacturing network that can assist our clients in the scale-up and manufacturing of their products.
Our core services include:
- Chemical design,
- Contract synthesis,
- Scale-up,
- Process development,
- Commercial supply, as well as
- Business development representation.
Intellectual property protection through the drafting of patents is also a service we offer based on our industry knowledge of the patent landscape and associated prior art.
#2. What are the main industries that Amindon serves, and how can they benefit from your company’s unique expertise?
Our understanding and credibility in the
coatings, polymer and lubricants industries garnered over 30+ years enables us to provide our clients with technology strategies, new products, and market channels to address the current and future needs of these industries. This provides our clients with a differentiated
new product and/or existing product strategies that enable them to
grow their businesses. We are also supporting our clients in the
agrochemical and biosciences industries via our global toll manufacturing network and chemistry expertise enabling the scale-up and supply of their products.
In addition, our variable cost structure and total project management approach enable our clients to practice an economically attractive option to achieve their business objectives freeing up some of their internal resources to focus on what they do best.
#3. According to you, what are the most critical challenges specialty chemicals manufacturers are facing nowadays and how your innovative solutions are helping them?
Differentiation through product innovation is a challenge the specialty chemicals industry faces since some R&D organizations have drastically changed due to position eliminations and/or retirement of key technical contributors.
We are supporting several companies to assist with their
innovation objectives from concept to market introduction. For example, we have used
our expertise and network in the coatings industry to introduce new products for a client who has building blocks that can be used for coatings applications where they have limited access to the coatings market.
We also provide
technical training and customer seminars to educate organizations on the latest technology for their specific application areas. Recent sourcing and supply chain challenges for products sourced overseas have enabled Amindon to use its domestic R&D and production resources to provide both new and existing products to shorten supply chain cycles. For example, one of our customers was importing a product from overseas and had a strong desire to look at an alternate supply chain; we were able to manufacture and supply the target product within two years and are now a regular supplier.
In summary, we can assist in
supporting the growth strategies of our customers via the successful introduction of new products together with executing on growth initiatives for their existing products using our extensive industry experience and client network.
#4. In addition to Amindon’s product development expertise, a part of your activity is the production of AMINCURE 1190 – could you share a bit of information with our Coatings community about how this product can help them with their formulation challenges?
AMINCURE 1190 is a reactive diluent for coatings & UV inks, especially screen & digital printing inks/inkjet printing inks, rapid prototyping, and UV adhesives.
Key features of AMINCURE 1190 include:
- It is a viable alternative to n-vinyl caprolactam (NVC).
- It has similar physical properties and cures speed but it is much safer from a health and safety aspect with an LD50>5000.
- It does not freeze above 32°F/0°C, which makes handling much easier in manufacturing.
- Favorable data are also available in comparison with n-vinylpyrrolidone (NVP).
About Miles Hutchings
Miles Hutchings is the CEO and founding partner of Amindon Inc., a New York company providing R&D services to the specialty chemicals industry. Miles held senior management positions with Intertek, BASF, and Ciba Corporation. He helped establish and lead Ciba's Expert Services business in North America, where he had full P&L responsibility and managed a team of 110 scientists, sales and marketing personnel, and support functions. As Head of Business Development for Intertek’s Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals business, his responsibilities included the organic growth of established business lines as well as growth options from outsourcing or M&A initiatives. Miles joined Intertek in New York in 2010 following the acquisition of the Ciba Expert Services business from BASF, which he had headed since its inception in 2004.
Miles’ industrial experience includes technical management for the development and application of lubricant additives as well as marketing and product management of additives for the plastics industry. His industrial career began with Ciba-Geigy in Basel, Switzerland, in 1987. Prior to joining Ciba, Miles was a Research Fellow within the Department of Medicine at the University of Oxford. He also gained industrial experience with Exxon Chemical Corporation and British Petroleum in the United Kingdom.
He has received several speaking awards and has published numerous articles, papers, and patents. Miles received a Ph. D. in Chemistry and a B. Sc. in Industrial Chemistry from the University of Wales, Cardiff.