What is Toll Blending?
Toll blending, also known as contract manufacturing or contract blending is a service whereby the production of (complex) chemical products is outsourced to a third party company (blender).
Nowadays it is a common service for chemical companies, from global conglomerates through to regional and specialized suppliers to reduce production risks. The toll blender receives the formula (most of the times under NDA), raw materials (most blenders can also take care of these) and packaging and turns it into a (final) product) for a production fee. A lot of blenders also offer the service to ship the products directly to the end user.
Why make use of toll blending services?
There are a lot of chemicals that require specialized equipment and resources for production. Resulting in high costs and large investments to mix in house. Because toll blenders serve multiple companies at the same time they are able to mix a wide range of chemicals with the same equipment enabling a cost-effective way of producing. By using toll blending services customers can extend their supply capacity and can deliver products to their customer specifications without the need to invest in capital equipment or develop processes that are not available in their own facilities.
Another advantage of using a blending service in today’s marketplace is that you are able to reduce your regulations compliancy risks (ISO 9001, ISO 14001, REACH et al.). In many cases a specialty blender is already compliant with current regulations such as safe labelling, transport and hazard regulations. This is of course even more important when dealing with hazardous (and non-hazardous) products as chemicals. Basically this means that when you are planning to export your chemicals to Europe from outside the EU it can be interesting to use an experienced toll blender in your field.
Read more: What is Toll Blending?