Dow Corning

Dow Corning Corporation
Company typeJoint Venture
IndustryManufacturing Research & Development
Founded1943
HeadquartersMidland, Michigan
Key people
Mauro Gregorio, CEO & President
ProductsSpeciality chemicals, silicon derived polymers
Revenue$6.12 billion (2012)[1]
Number of employees
12,000 [2]
ParentThe Dow Chemical Company & Corning Inc
Websitewww.dowcorning.com

Dow Corning Corporation,[3][4] was an American multinational corporation headquartered in Midland, Michigan, United States, and was originally established as a joint venture between The Dow Chemical Company and Corning Incorporated. In 2016, Dow bought out Corning, making Dow Corning a 100% Dow subsidiary. After a brief existence as a DowDuPont-owned company, Dow spun out from DowDuPont on April 1, 2019. The new company, Dow Silicones Corporation, which is wholly owned by Dow, specializes in silicone and silicon-based technology, and is the largest silicone product producer in the world.

History

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Dow Corning, Bay City

Dow Corning was formally established in 1943 as a joint venture between the American conglomerates Dow Chemical and Corning Glass to explore the potential of silicone and was a manufacturer of products for use by the U.S. military in World War II. The company began operating its first plant, in Midland, MI, in 1945. Dr. E. C. Sullivan was named president, and Dr. William R. Collings was named general manager in 1943. Dr. Collings later became president from 1954 until 1962.[5] It expanded into Canada and Europe in 1948, and into South America and Japan in 1961.[5]

A large, majority-owned subsidiary of Dow Corning Corporation is the Hemlock Semiconductor Corporation.[6] It is one of the world's largest producers of high-purity polycrystalline silicon, which is sold in varying purity grades for use in both semiconductor silicon wafer manufacture and photovoltaics applications as solar cells.[5]

On November 13, 2014, The Dow Chemical Company's former CEO Andrew N. Liveris revealed in a presentation to investors that Corning Incorporated intended to exit the joint venture of 71 years, citing other priorities.[7] Following the December 11, 2015 announcement that it would merge with DuPont, Dow also announced on the same day that it had reached a deal to acquire Corning's stake in Dow Corning in exchange for $4.8 billion in cash and Corning gaining a roughly 40% stake in Hemlock Semiconductor Corporation. Dow Chemical assumed full ownership of Dow Corning on June 1, 2016.[8][9] The company changed its name to Dow Silicones Corporation in 2018.

Products

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Dow Corning marketed over 7000 products, including various sealants, adhesives, rubbers, lubricants, silicon oils and solvents. Around 2,100 of these are available through the Dow Corning online-only distributor Xiameter, including fluids, gels, resins. The range of industries targeted by Dow Corning products spans from electronics and automotive to construction, healthcare and others. In recent years, the company has expanded production of solar cells, particularly through its majority stake in Hemlock Semiconductor Corporation, which accounts for a polysilicon franchise worth over $1 billion.[10] In 2011, then-CTO Gregg Zank explained that the company tries to focus its product development on societal “megatrends” (e.g. energy scarcity and urbanization).[11]

Problems with breast implants

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Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, class-action lawsuits[12] brought by tens of thousands of plaintiffs claimed that Dow Corning's silicone breast implants caused systemic health problems. The claims first centered on breast cancer and then migrated to a range of autoimmune diseases, including lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and various neurological problems. This led to numerous lawsuits beginning in 1984 and culminating in a 1998 $3.2 Billion class action settlement.[13] As a result, Dow Corning was in bankruptcy protection for nine years, ending in June 2004[14] during which time it largely withdrew from clinical markets.[15]

Although a number of independent reviews, including the Institute of Medicine in the United States, subsequently indicated that silicone breast implants do not cause breast cancers or any identifiable systemic diseases,[16][17] on 21 March 2017, the FDA issued a statement indicating that women with breast implants have a "very low but increased risk"[18] of getting a rare form of cancer called anaplastic large-cell lymphoma (ALCL).[18] The cancer is associated with nine deaths, the FDA said.[19] These findings have caused an uptick in breast implant removal surgeries.[citation needed]

References

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  1. ^ Dow Corning fast facts Archived 2013-10-21 at the Wayback Machine (June 13, 2013)
  2. ^ "Five things to know about Michigan-based Dow Corning Corp". 14 November 2014.
  3. ^ Bhattacharjee, Nivedita (September 12, 2017). "DowDuPont alters post-merger breakup plans amid investor pressure". Reuters.
  4. ^ "Dowdupont gibt Namen der künftigen drei Unternehmen bekannt". plastverarbeiter.de (in German). March 1, 2018.
  5. ^ a b c "Michigan-based Dow Corning: Timeline of a global success story". Retrieved 17 March 2015.
  6. ^ Robert Westervelt (June 24, 2011). "Dow Corning". Chemical Week. Retrieved 2015-02-10. Dow Corning, a 50–50 jv between Dow Chemical and Corning, is the world's largest silicones producer and has a controlling 62.5% stake in Hemlock Semiconductor (Hemlock, MI), the world's leading producer of polysilicon used in semiconductor and solar wafer production. ...
  7. ^ Kaskey, Jack (13 November 2014). "Dow Says Corning Wants to Exit 71-Year-Old Venture". Bloomberg News. Bloomberg. Retrieved 16 November 2014.
  8. ^ "Corning to Swap Stake In Dow Corning For $4.8 Billion, Semiconductor Stake". wsj.com. wsj.com. 11 December 2015. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
  9. ^ "Dow Chemical to Take Full Control of Dow Corning Venture". Bloomberg News. Bloomberg. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
  10. ^ "Dow Corning: Solar, Sustainability Drive Turnaround". IHS Chemical Week Magazine. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
  11. ^ "Innovation in chemicals: An interview with Dow Corning's CEO and CTO". McKinsey’s & Company. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
  12. ^ independent.co.uk – $2.4bn breast-implant offer, 1997-08-26
  13. ^ Chronology of silicone breast implants. Frontline
  14. ^ Reisch, M. (2004). "Out of the Woods". Chemical & Engineering News. 82 (15): 5. doi:10.1021/cen-v082n015.p005.
  15. ^ Reisch, M. S. (1993). "Dow Corning Moving Back on Track Following Breast Implant Controversy". Chemical & Engineering News. 71 (2): 13–16. doi:10.1021/cen-v071n002.p013.
  16. ^ Gina Kolata (June 21, 1999). "Panel Confirms No Major Illness Tied to Implants". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-02-10. An independent panel of 13 scientists convened by the Institute of Medicine at the request of Congress has concluded that silicone breast implants do not cause any major diseases.
  17. ^ Colas, André; Curtis, Jim (2004). Biomaterials Science, Second Edition: An Introduction to Materials in Medicine (PDF). Elsevier, Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-12-582463-7.
  18. ^ a b "FDA Updates Warning on Link Between Textured Breast Implants and Rare Cancer". BreastCancer.org. 22 March 2017. Archived from the original on 19 January 2018. Retrieved 15 Aug 2018.
  19. ^ Grady, Denise (21 March 2017). "9 Deaths Are Linked to Rare Cancer From Breast Implants". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 Aug 2018.
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