Feb 21, 2018

BRANDT opens new Illinois lab for growers

BRANDT has just completed the construction of a new 2,000 square foot formulations lab in its Pleasant Plains, Illinois production facility. The new lab will serve as a hub for new formulation development and testing, as well as quality control.

The ag-focussed company consists of three divisions – Specialty Formulations, Retail Agronomy and Dealer Support – that serve growers. BRANDT was founded in 1953 by Glen Brandt and his sister Evelyn Brandt Thomas to help Illinois farmers adopt new and profitable technologies.

The new lab is more than six times larger than the previous lab and was built to support the growing needs of the business. The new lab includes several new instruments to help ensure that customers continue to receive high-quality products as new formulations are introduced and production expands.

“This expansion almost doubles our formulation space and capabilities in the U.S.,” said Brian Haschemeyer, Director of Discovery and Innovation for BRANDT. “A lot of proprietary new formulation development work and QC is done in Pleasant Plains. The lab expansion will allow BRANDT to develop better, more advanced products; to screen and produce new formulations more efficiently; and be able to run quality control tests faster.”

Some of the new lab features include an ICP-OES machine and Nitrogen Analyzer, which allow BRANDT to do full fertilizer analysis and heavy metal screening. It also includes a high-performance liquid chromatography machine, which analyzes the presence and concentration of Plant Growth Regulators and bio-stimulants as well as sugar derivatives, organic acids and chelates. A new UV Vis dye analysis instrument was also added to screen the quality and concentration of dyes and colorants.

The Pleasant Plains lab is one of five labs that the company operates, including labs in Fresno, CA, Logan, UT, Carmona, Spain and Londrina, Brazil.

Above: A BRANDT chemist preparing samples for quality control measurements, including pH, density, and nutrient analysis.