Reaxis heading to top global trade fair

A McDonald company is among a group of Pennsylvania firms that will participate in an international trade fair this spring, according to a news release from the Pittsburgh office of U.S. Commercial Service.

Officials from Reaxis Inc., a specialty chemicals manufacturer on Robinson Highway (Route 980), will attend Hannover Messe in Hannover, Germany, April 25-29.

The event, in its 68th year, is regarded as one the world’s top trade shows for industrial technology. More than 200,000 are expected to participate. This will be the first time the United States will be a partner country.

Reaxis manufactures an extensive range of products used in numerous industries including plastics, coatings, elastomers, adhesives, sealants, personal care, hydrogen peroxide stabilization, oil/gas drilling applications, electronics and lubricants.

The Reaxis name came into being in 2008, but its history dates to 1965, when Pitt Processing and Manufacturing Co. bought the existing property. The firm eventually became Pitt Metals and Chemicals Inc., which started manufacturing inorganic tin compounds in the 1970s.

In 1995, Th. Goldschmidt AG of Essen, Germany, bought PMC and renamed it Goldschmidt Industrial Chemical Corp. Even though Th. Goldschmidt AG, the parent, was acquired by one firm and integrated with another two years after that, the GICC name remained. It became an independent company in 2006, fully owned by management, before becoming Reaxis.

“This will put a large spotlight on our participating area companies,” Lyn Doverspike, director of the U.S. Commercial Service in Pittsburgh, said in a prepared statement. “The U.S. manufacturing industry is a world leader and this show offers a great showcase of American engineering.”