How the Wrong Chemical Company Can Make You Miss Deadlines

In one way or another, most companies work in what we’ve come to call a “deadline driven environment” — a term that’s self-explanatory. Practically everything a company sells, as well as every process that contributes to the sales process, has a strict timeline attached.

When timelines aren’t kept, internal problems are often to blame, but missed deadlines can also result from a business-to-business relationship, where one partner always seems to be a step behind.

Is Your Chemical Company Making You Miss Deadlines?

The scenario above can happen in various capacities. Here, we’re concerned with how using the wrong chemical company can make you miss deadlines — a phenomenon you simply can’t afford due to the customer attrition it can cause.

Consequently, the focus for solvent users should be to avoid these companies instead of cutting them loose once their shoddy business practices come to light. Below are four characteristics of a chemical company that have a good chance of making you miss important deadlines.

  1. Doesn’t Formulate Custom Solvents

If your chemical company doesn’t formulate custom solvents, and you end up needing a custom formulation, you’ll need to find a different supplier — a process that requires time, effort, and careful decision making that could easily make you miss deadlines that depend on solvent use.

  1. Supplies Custom Solvents on a One-off Basis

If you need a custom solvent for an ongoing cleaning application, chances are that you need the solvent on an ongoing basis instead of a one-off basis, which would require you to reorder the solvent each time you need a new batch. A chemical company that stores your solvent information, and can supply custom solvents on a scheduled basis is a better option.

  1. Uses Shipping Options That Slow Delivery

Direct shipping provides the fastest delivery, but some chemical companies use less than load (LTL) shipping to help cut costs for delivering small to medium size orders. In LTL shipping, multiple shipments are placed in a single freight container and dropped off to multiple customers along the shipping route. LTL shipping involves lots of stops and starts, which slows down the delivery of your solvent.

  1. Not Enough Production to Serve Customer Base

Another drawback that some chemical companies have is simply not producing enough supply to meet demand. If your current supplier is frequently backlogged with orders for the solvent you need, this alone is enough to choose a different supplier.

Looking for a New Chemical Company?

If your current chemical company sabotages your operations by making you miss deadlines, it’s time to find a new one. Ecolink would love the opportunity to show you how we can improve the situation once and for all.

We offer stock solvents that ship the same day, custom solvents that ship in a few days, and provide the option of having your solvents delivered on a scheduled basis through direct shipping — all for an affordable price that helps prevent your solvent operations from using too much of the operating budget.

To learn more about our solvent options and solvent delivery options, please call us today at (800) 563-1305, our use our contact form, to schedule a free review of your requirements. We look forward to helping you consistently complete your solvent-based operations on schedule.

Why Do You Need More Than a Chemical Distributor?

The type of chemical supplier you buy solvents from can have a big impact on the range of the solvents at your disposal, and how well particular solvents match up with your cleaning requirements. In most cases, companies and organizations are better off to get solvents straight from the solvent manufacturer (a.k.a. supplier) instead of receiving them from a chemical distributor (a.k.a. vendor). Below are four important considerations that support the claim.

  1. Cost Effectiveness

Because a chemical distributor essentially serves as a middleman between a solvent manufacturer and customers who use the manufacturer’s products, you often pay more when purchasing solvents from a distributor. Like a manufacturer, a distributor applies a markup to the price of solvents to earn a profit. Buying straight from the manufacturer lets you avoid the distributor’s markup.

  1. Custom Formulations

Also known as “toll blending” and “custom mixing”, the creation of custom solvents is an essential service for companies and organizations that have complex solvent needs. Because distributors don’t manufacture their own solvents, they typically lack the capacity to perform toll blending.

Even if you don’t need a custom solvent now, you may need one in the future, as your cleaning needs expand and change, as your business grows. From the start, this is reason enough to choose a supplier that performs toll blending instead of a chemical distributor that can only offer imperfect solutions for complex solvent needs.

  1. Product Support

If you buy solvent, that probably means you don’t have the capacity to make your own solvents. This being the case, it also means that you would probably like to receive a high level of product support for solvent use, solvent storage, solvent recycling, etc. Because a manufacturer typically has the most in-depth understanding of its products, you generally receive the highest level of product support by going straight to the manufacturer instead of a distributor.

  1. Quality Control

For anything that’s manufactured, the highest level of quality control comes from overseeing the manufacturing process in-house. Third party manufacturers aren’t inherently bad; they produce some fine products, and help to lower production cost, which can lower product cost. However, if you want the greatest assurance that the solvent you buy will perform as advertised, getting it from a manufacturer that creates and tests the product is the safest move.

Make Us Your Solvent Supplier

At Ecolink, we function as more than a chemical distributor. We create our own stock solvents and produce custom solvents for customers who have unique cleaning requirements. In supplying solvents, we serve as a consultant that provides solutions that meet your current needs, and swiftly provides new solutions if and when your solvent requirements change.

To inquire about our environmentally safe and environmentally preferred, industrial grade solvents, give us a call today at (800) 563-1305, or fill out the contact form on our website. We look forward to learning about your solvent requirements and seeing what we can do to address them affordably and effectively.

Why Working With a Custom Chemical Company Makes Sense

Toll blending, toll manufacturing, or custom mixing; whatever you choose to call it, the discipline of creating solvents that have a custom chemical formulation is an essential service for many industrial and commercial solvent users. What if your company or organization isn’t among them? Could acquiring solvents from a custom chemical company still offer benefits? At Ecolink, we think the answer is yes for the four reasons below.

You May Need a Custom Solvent in the Future

Even if your solvent needs are set in stone, have been that way for years, and don’t involve using custom solvents, there’s still a chance that you could need a custom solvent in the future. Below is a common scenario by which it could happen.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) severely regulates a hazardous chemical in one of your solvents. You need the same cleaning power from a replacement solvent, but you need the solvent in an eco friendly formulation. If a stock solvent can’t plug the gap, then you’re immediately in the market for a unique solvent from a custom chemical company.

You Avoid Wasting Time Searching for a Solvent

Whether you need a new solvent due to EPA regulations or because one of your cleaning processes changes, a new solvent should be implemented quickly to maintain productivity. If you’re supplier is a custom chemical company, it should be able to tell you quickly whether a readymade solvent or a custom solvent is the best fit for your requirements, and then swiftly formulate a custom solution if that’s what you need.

You Can Also Purchase Readymade Solutions

Many custom chemical companies do more than perform toll blending; they also sell readymade solutions that are marketed as stock products that are available for immediate shipment. This gives you a big advantage when it comes to receiving a solvent that meets your needs: Because the company sells both readymade solvents and custom solvents, there’s no reason for to promote readymade solutions when a custom solution is needed, or vice versa.

You Avoid a Solvent That Isn’t the Best Fit

The situation described above is fairly common. Companies and organizations routinely use solvents that aren’t a good fit for their cleaning applications — and working with a chemical company that only supplies stock solvents is a big reason why. If your cleaning operations are crucial to your core business functions, you need solvents that suit the operations seamlessly. These are exactly the type of solvents a custom chemical company specializes in supplying.

Need the Services of a Custom Chemical Company?

If so, and you want solvents that have a commendable safety profile for workers and the environment, getting your cleaning solutions from us is a good choice. Ecolink is a custom chemical company that supplies both readymade solvents and unique solvents that are tailored to the needs of specific customers. When you use us as your supplier, you never have to worry about not having a solvent that’s perfectly formulated for your cleaning requirements.

For assistance selecting solvents, please call us today (800) 563-1305, or use our contact form. We look forward to helping you select the best cleaning solvents for your requirements.

4 Ways to Use Less Chemical Solvents & Maintain Cleaning Standards

For many companies and organizations that depend on chemical solvents for business-critical cleaning operations, the desire to use less chemical solvents while maintaining cleaning standards is a primary goal for two reasons: reducing the cost of solvent and improving the safety of solvent use for workers and the environment. If you wish to use less chemical solvents for these reasons, below are four effective ways to go about achieving the goal.

  1. Use Organic Replacement Cleaners

The impact of the green movement on the industrial cleaner industry has motivated the creation of safe, organic cleaning solvents that are as powerful as the hazardous chemical solvents they’re designed to replace. Substituting organic cleaners for chemical cleaners is one of the easiest ways to use less chemical solvents while maintaining cleaning standards.

When you shop for organic replacement cleaners, remember that just because a cleaner is “organic” doesn’t mean it’s safe. For safety’s sake, focus on identifying organic solutions that contain little to no volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that negatively affect human health.

  1. Participate in Solvent Recycling

Even if you decide not to replace your chemical solvents, you can reduce your need to purchase them by recycling them. For example, high boiling solvents can be recycled by using them in a parts washer that applies a full vacuum to the cleaning chamber to draw solvent vapor into a condenser unit, where it condenses into liquid solvent that can be reused. Over time, solvent recycling can significantly reduce how much you spend on a cleaning solvent.

  1. Purchase Concentrated Solvents

Another way to reduce solvent expense is purchasing chemical solvents in concentrated form. Concentrated solvent can be diluted until it attains the precise degree of cleaning power you need for specific cleaning operations. If you purchase a solvent in pre-diluted form, you may be using the cleaner in a formulation that delivers more power than you really need. Carefully diluting concentrated cleaner is another viable option for using less chemical solvents.

  1. Review Whether Chemicals are Needed

Some companies and organizations adopt the practice of using chemical solvents for practically all cleaning operations — even ones that don’t necessarily require the use of strong chemicals. For example, removing light accumulations of dirt and grease from work surfaces can often be accomplished with the use of an over-the-counter (OTC), safe organic cleaner. So, why use industrial grade cleaning solvents for applications for which they simply aren’t necessary?

How Ecolink Can Help
If one of your company or organization’s resolutions is to use less chemical solvents, Ecolink can support the goal by providing organically formulated solvents that are chemical-free. We can also supply you with chemical a solvent that may be perfect for recycling when it’s used in a parts washer, and reveal helpful strategies for using less chemicals without replacing them.

To inquire about our organic replacement cleaners and/or receive professional advice on minimizing the use chemical solvents you don’t plan to replace, please call us today at (800) 563-1305, or use our contact page. We look forward to helping you use less chemical solvents.


Custom Chemical Services – Doing More than Selling Solvents & Degreasers


