DUBLIN, Ohio - Ashland Performance Materials, a commercial unit of Ashland Inc. (NYSE: ASH), today announced a joint effort with Amtech, LLC and Endurance Wind Power to produce wind turbine blades at Amtech's North American manufacturing facility in Washington state. 

As Endurance looked to rapidly grow in volume, and lead the small and medium wind turbine market with advanced airfoil design and composites technology, they collaborated with Ashland and Amtech to develop a unique market approach. Ashland’s significant investments in developing new resins and associated products for the wind power market over the past five years contribute significantly to this project. Amtech’s expertise in composite manufacturing and wind blade production completed the alignment for high-quality wind blade fabrication.

"Amtech and Ashland have been working together for many years. Ashland has a long history of providing Amtech with resin chemistries to produce composite parts for the military and transportation industries,” said Ruben Bake, global marketing director, wind energy, Ashland Performance Materials. “We are very excited to enhance this customer relationship through our wide range of products that deliver performance and productivity to manufacturers in the wind energy market.”   

Amtech will produce wind blades for Endurance Wind Power Inc.’s line of small to mid-sized wind turbines. “Ashland’s resins for wind energy enable Amtech to produce highly engineered, lightweight, high quality blades for Endurance,” said Douglas Christie, Amtech's CEO. “Our manufacturing facilities and skilled technicians are well equipped to support the growing demand for wind energy,” said Christie.  “Amtech is a ‘solutions’ oriented supplier, and we will provide Endurance with a range of value added services for a complete ready-to-use assembly.”

“We are thrilled to be working with two world class suppliers like Ashland and Amtech,” said Glenn Johnson, CEO of Endurance. “Ashland’s cutting-edge materials will help us maintain our position as technical leaders in our segment, and Amtech’s engineered solutions will provide us with optimum products that meet our demanding requirements.” Endurance’s recent acquisition of Energie PGE will allow it to apply its market leading technologies to the medium-sized turbine sector.  

Ashland Performance Materials is the global leader in unsaturated polyester resins and epoxy vinyl ester resins. In addition, it provides customers with leading technologies in gelcoats, pressure-sensitive and structural adhesives, with metal casting consumables and design services. To learn more about Ashland, visit www.ashland.com.

Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH) provides specialty chemical products, services and solutions for many of the world’s most essential needs and industries. Serving customers in more than 100 countries, it operates through five commercial units: Ashland Aqualon Functional Ingredients, Ashland Hercules Water Technologies, Ashland Performance Materials, Ashland Consumer Markets (Valvoline) and Ashland Distribution.

Amtech, LLC is one of the nation’s largest fabricators of high quality, large scale and complex geometry composite products.  With extensive experience in defense, transportation and construction markets, Amtech offers complete engineering services to help customers realize their project’s full potential.  Amtech’s 20+ years of experience in all types of composite fabrication processes combined with its extensive offering of value added services make it a complete composites and plastic supplier.  Amtech is ISO9000 certified for complete quality assurance.  Amtech’s website is www.amtechcorp.com, or call 509-877-4109 for more info.

Endurance Wind Power Inc. is a North American producer of a complete line of small to mid-size induction generator, grid-connected (inverterless) wind turbines. They are one of the only manufacturers in the world to offer a suite of products that are built to safety and performance standards of large utility-scale multi-MW turbines. Through their extensive North American distribution network, Endurance can provide best in class wind machines to both US and Canadian markets. For more information visit www.endurancewindpower.com or call 1-888-440-4451.