Gage Products was founded in Ferndale, MI in June 1936. In the eight decades that have passed since then, the chemical industry has seen no shortage of revolutionary products and processes. We’ve proudly pioneered some of them, including closed loop chemical recycling systems and solvent recovery processes for the automotive industry.
In 2018, Gage remains a leader in the chemical industry, providing its customers with superior solutions for high performance solvent blends, solvent reclamation, recycling, and toll remanufacturing, custom test fuel blends, calibration fluids, and toll manufacturing, and paint line cleaning programs and specialty product solutions. On our 82nd anniversary, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on the values that have helped us excel for so long.
The Importance of Remaining Agile
Agility has become a priority for companies across the world in recent years. At Gage, it’s been a guiding principle throughout our history. With the rise of chemical recycling in the 1980s, for example, we quickly developed a closed loop chemical recycling system to distinguish ourselves from our competitors. Our swift response to that demand established our reputation as an international leader in chemical recycling.
Similarly, we only began to manufacture custom test fuel blends just after the turn of the millennium. While we had a well-established family of products, we knew we needed to expand our inventory to offer our customers a full suite of services in one location.
Today, Gage offers a complete package of services to all of our customers, including R&D, a specifications library, custom fluids development and on-site refining capabilities. New gasoline blends continue to appear, change, and evolve, and Gage has quickly become a reliable source for customized test fuels.
A Focus on Sustainability
At Gage, we recognized early on that sustainability makes ethical and financial sense. We remain completely committed to it today. Our unique, customer-oriented solutions for closed loop solvent recycling processes and toll blend remanufacturing reduce manufacturing costs and support the customer’s own environmental and sustainability commitments.
By reducing, reusing, and recycling waste, we’re able to help our customers minimize their environment impact and minimize the costs of production. In the process, we each become more competitive while ensuring the health of our shared planet.
At Gage, we believe that the most successful companies of the 21st century will place an equal emphasis on sustainability and agility. Guided by a deep commitment to progress since our founding, we’ll proudly continue to honor those values as over the years to come. By adapting to the successes and challenges ahead of us, we’re confident that we’ll continue to thrive for the next 82 years and beyond.
If your company is looking for an innovative chemical supplier, look no further than Gage. Regardless of your needs, we have the experience and expertise needed to provide you with the products you need to succeed. Contact us to build your own custom blend.
At Gage, we follow some straightforward ideals: quality, reliability, innovation, customer focus, and environmental stewardship. With the opening of our new Gage Innovation Center we have put all of these concepts into overdrive to strengthen our commitment to vehicle manufacturers and the automotive and industrial suppliers we serve.
Our commitment to advancing research and development efforts for new products and continued growth is evident in our new center. This multi-million dollar facility, located at our 12-acre Ferndale headquarters site, is important for many reasons: It lets us bring the Quality Control (QC) and Research & Development (R&D) departments together under the same roof for easier collaboration and in-house testing. We celebrated the official opening on Oct. 15th with community leaders, state and local officials, and, of course, all of our valued employees.
One of the most exciting aspects of this new center is the state-of-the-art laboratory outfitted with highly technical equipment. Our scientists now have access to gas chromatography and mass spectrometry equipment, both of which are critical to the multitude of tests we run. In the past, it was also time consuming to deliver reports and findings across departments — the new computerized, integrated information system allows technicians to share QC and R&D testing results much more quickly and efficiently.
This new facility also allows us to add new capabilities. We are now able to:
• Perform aromatic and detailed hydrocarbon analysis for fuels • Determine compound identifications through use of a mass spectrometry upgrade • Execute critical testing on up to 50 distinct fuel properties • Increase storage capacity for customer-product test samples
As one of our missions is for continuous improvement, this new Innovation Center gives our QC technicians better control and focus on the 500+ tests that we run each week. Performing all the tests in our own laboratory, without needing to outsource, lets us deliver results in 1-2 days. If re-testing is necessary, it can begin right away. The benefit greatly enhances the service we provide for our customers.
This new Innovation Center is an investment in our future so that we can expand our capabilities and develop new products while continuing to offer outstanding customer service. Gage is certified for ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 14001:2004 and the new Gage Innovation Center laboratory is in the process of certifying to ISO 17025 standards.
To learn more about our expanded and upgraded facilities and capabilities, feel free to contact us. We’d love to share our new innovations with you!
If you’re following our Facebook page, you’ve probably seen our images from the 2014 SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge that took place at the beginning of March. The event allows engineering students from schools across the region to re-engineer existing snowmobile for improved fuel economy, lower emissions and reduced noise levels without sacrificing performance.
The future engineers are judged on rating emissions, noise, fuel economy, endurance, acceleration, handling, static display, cold start, and various design factors. Aside from the standard challenge, there is a zero-emissions category (for battery-powered sleds), which is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, according to Michigan Tech’s website. They also list the participating universities:
If you’re following our Facebook page, you’ve probably seen our images from the 2014 SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge that took place at the beginning of March. The event allows engineering students from schools across the region to re-engineer existing snowmobile for improved fuel economy, lower emissions and reduced noise levels without sacrificing performance.
The future engineers are judged on rating emissions, noise, fuel economy, endurance, acceleration, handling, static display, cold start, and various design factors. Aside from the standard challenge, there is a zero-emissions category (for battery-powered sleds), which is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, according to Michigan Tech’s website. They also list the participating universities:
Internal Combustion: Clarkson University, École de technologie supérieure, Kettering University, Michigan Technological University, North Dakota State University, Northern Illinois University, Rochester Institute of Technology, State University of New York at Buffalo, University of Idaho, University of Minnesota–Duluth, University of Waterloo, University of Wisconsin–Madison, University of Wisconsin–Platteville
Zero-Emissions: Clarkson University, McGill University, Michigan Technological University, Queen’s University, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, University of Alaska Fairbanks at Bristol Bay
As a leading supplier of automotive paint-system solvent-recycling programs and a global leader in custom fuel-blending services for product development and emission-control testing, we believe events such as this are crucial to the longevity of the industry.
We believe in supporting the next generation of engineers, ideas and STEM, so we’re happy to help—in fact, this marks the twelfth year that Gage Products has sponsored the event at Michigan Technological University. Be sure to subscribe to our blog (on the top right of this page) for more information about upcoming events and what we’re up to.
Alternative, fossil, cells—there are plenty of fuel types making headlines these days. As a leader in custom fuel blending for automotive OEMs, engine manufacturers, and suppliers across the globe, we’re at the forefront of innovations in creating custom fuel bends for our customers.
We have four main objectives for fuel development, supply and servicing: reference, custom blends, calibration fluids, and toll manufacturing. It can be difficult to keep up with our offerings, so we wanted to break down a little about each objective below:
When OEMs approach us for more information on Reference Fuels, we offer up our knowledge base of fluid specifications and testing requirements. Typically, clients will submit a name of a product or spec a particular need, and we’ll do the rest. This allows us to create and test what application is an appropriate solution.
Our specialized research facility is perfect to design specific Custom Fuel Blends for our customers stemming from a variety of material properties. We pride ourselves in having a full-service research and development team, with a specifications library, on-site refining capabilities, to facilitate custom fuel advancement.
Calibration Fluids are held to rigorous standards, as the automotive industry requires the most precise measurements that include viscosity and flow characteristics, and we’re able to meet the demands.
Our Toll Manufacturing capabilitiesbrings together our plant assets and expertise, hand blend analysis, and full-range of research and design, and analytical services. Our corporate cadence is designed to continuously work toward economical and sustainable solutions.
Still want more information on our custom fuel blends for automotive applications? Call us at 248-541-3824 or shoot us an email at fuels@gageproducts.com.
University of Wisconsin-Platteville’s Team – winner of Gage Products’ award for best overall fuel economy and third place winner overall.
As a proud sponsor of the SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge, we are excited to announce the winners of the event, which proved to be a huge success. Gage Products’ award for best overall fuel economy went to the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, who was also the third place winner overall. First place went to Clarkson University of Potsdam, NY, and second place to Kettering University of Flint, Michigan. All of the college students who participated in the event, held in Michigan every year since 2002, showed ingenuity and enthusiasm. As described in our previous blog, the over 200 competitors were challenged to re-engineer existing snowmobiles for improved fuel economy, lower emissions, and reduced noise levels without sacrificing performance, competing in a variety of events rating emissions, noise, fuel economy, endurance, acceleration, handling, static display, cold start and various design factors.
“Gage blends the fuels used for our indoor lab emissions tests and all of the other outdoor events,” said Jay Meldrum, lead competition organizer for the Clean Snowmobile Challenge. “Gage’s expertise and generosity have made this event a huge success. I do not know how we could do this without their support.”
As a leading supplier of test fuels, paint solvents, and paint-system recycling products, and a pioneer in green practices, it has been our privilege to sponsor and provide the fuel blends for the event, and we congratulate the winners. We can’t wait to see what they do next year!
Today’s snowmobiles are already far removed from the bulky, belching vehicles of a few decades ago. As official sponsors of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Clean Snowmobile Challenge, Gage Products is interested to see just how far college students can push these new, clean, and quiet standards for snowmobiles. Can they top 25 mpg? What are the best options for zero emissions? Demonstrating their expertise in modifying existing internal combustion engines to meet benchmarks for speed, engine volume, fuel efficiency, cost efficiency, cleanliness, and several other criteria, the competition, held from March 5th through 10th this year at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, MI, is the perfect mixture of fun and brains.
One important goal of the competition is to develop feasible engines for the real world – not impractical concepts that would be too expensive to mass-produce, let alone market to consumers. To this end, engines should be able to meet real-world requirements, one of which is the ability to handle a number of different fuel compositions, which can vary in ethanol levels for gasoline-powered sleds or biodiesel content for diesel-powered ones. As part of Gage’s sponsorship, we supply all test fuels, ensuring a level playing field as well as the ability to handle a range of fuel types. With over 10 years of support for the Clean Snowmobile Challenge, this is just one more way that Gage acts as a great environmental steward.
Efficiency, sustainability, recyclability: these are certainly not new buzzwords in the automotive industry, or industry in general, but they are areas in which greater focus and great strides have been seen recently. Gage Products, which recently celebrated 75 years as a successful solvent and fuel blender and distributor, has been acting in pursuit of those goals for much longer than just the past few years. What’s more, we’ve been providing the means for incredibly high levels of production efficiency for nearly 30 years.
When the environmental impact of automobiles is discussed, the conversation typically revolves around topics like fuel efficiency, hybrid engines, and electric cars. Gage has made its mark on sustainability in auto production in a different, though just as important area. By developing a closed-loop remanufacturing system for paint solvents in manufacturing plants, Gage has not only saved companies millions of dollars, but also kept millions of pounds of hazardous by-product and paint waste, out of the environment.
Re-distilling used solvents is just part of our sustainability effort. Follow our blog for more information about our fuel efficiency efforts, and more. Thank you for reading!
In 2018, Gage remains a leader in the chemical industry, providing its customers with superior solutions for high performance solvent blends, solvent reclamation, recycling, and toll remanufacturing, custom test fuel blends, calibration fluids, and toll manufacturing, and paint line cleaning programs and specialty product solutions. On our 82nd anniversary, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on the values that have helped us excel for so long.
