When building a new plant, we traditionally create a sticker that the team can place on their hard hats. The decals add to a sense of comradery and express pride in being part of the project.
As we began constructing our latest facility in La Porte, Texas, we thought about hiring a graphic designer to make a sticker for the project. But then we decided to ask people across Orion to submit designs. We thought it would be a great way to give everyone – accountants, salespeople, IT technicians, etc. – an opportunity to flex their creative muscles and be a part of the project.
Our design specifications called for the sticker to be round and include the Orion colors: blue, black and white. We also wanted the sticker to include at least one element that localized the design and tied it to La Porte.
The response was overwhelming. We received 13 designs from colleagues across the world. Picking the final design was a tough task for our panel of judges. The winner was Lucas Barreto, an international technical purchaser at our plant in Paulinia, Brazil.
Lucas’ eye-catching sticker captures the local features of La Porte, a historic city where the Houston Ship Channel meets Galveston Bay. The decal includes the city’s symbol – a bay bird – as well as La Porte’s most famous landmark, the San Jacinto Monument – the world’s tallest war memorial. Sprinkled around the edges of the sticker are acetylene-based conductive additives, which will be produced by the plant.
The La Porte plant is special because it will be the only facility in the U.S. producing acetylene-based conductive additives. The material is commonly used in lithium-ion batteries, high-voltage cables and other products powering the global transition to electrification and renewable energy.
Acetylene is a colorless gas widely used as a chemical building block. Orion’s production process turns acetylene into a powder, which is added to lithium-ion batteries, enhancing electrical conductivity and extending the lifetime of the most valuable component of an electric vehicle. The material plays a similar role in high-voltage cables used for wind and solar farms.
The plant, which is expected to produce approximately 12 kilotons per year, should quadruple Orion’s effective manufacturing capacity of acetylene-based conductive additives.
Orion has a similar plant in France and is the only acetylene-based conductive additive producer in Europe.
