Union Process, Inc. is a company founded in 1946 in Akron, Ohio, USA, and was the world’s first to develop Attritor stirred-media ball-mill grinding technology.
1. Company Overview
Company name: Union Process, Inc.
Founded: 1946, by founder Dr. Andrew Szegvari
Headquarters: Akron, Ohio, USA
Business areas: particle-size-reduction/dispersion equipment (Attritors, bead mills), grinding media, toll grinding services
2. History and Workforce
Founded in 1946 by Dr. Szegvari out of a small plant in downtown Akron. He invented a method using randomly moving grinding media, creating the world’s first “Attritor grinding and dispersion” milling method — a technology that remains the company’s core asset to this day.
The company serves customers through a worldwide network of licensees and agents. Detailed organizational/workforce composition is (undisclosed).
3. Core Technology and Key Equipment
Batch Attritors are manufactured in sizes ranging from 750cc to 600-gallon capacity and from 1hp to 400hp motors, and the company more recently also operates a DMQX horizontal bead-mill lineup targeting submicron/nanometer particle-size ranges.
- Batch Attritor — 750cc–600 gallon, 1–400hp
- HD/HDDM Combination Attritor — integrates both modes into one machine
- DMQX Horizontal Bead Mill — addresses submicron–nanometer particle sizes
- CLS Attritor — special line combining slaking and grinding
Per the official datasheet (October 2024), the batch Attritor ‘S’ series comprises five models from the S-5 (37.9 L, 2.2-3.7 kW motor, 2,007 mm height) up to the S-200 (1,184.7 L, 29.8-55.9 kW motor, 3,073 mm height), while the tungsten-carbide-dedicated ‘SC’ series offers two models, the SC-30 (159 L, 14.9 kW, 2,337 mm height) and SC-100 (424 L, 37.3 kW, 2,642 mm height). The lineup uses variable-speed drives and a circulation pump system, said to achieve grinding speeds up to 10 times faster than conventional ball mills (source figures originally in gallons/HP/inches; mm/kW conversions added). In 2022 the company also launched the Q-03, a benchtop laboratory model (1 HP, variable-frequency drive, 1-gallon premix tank) for evaluating pigments, coatings, and inks, developed in response to requests from customers of the existing Q-100 model for a small-scale evaluation unit.
4. Production Infrastructure and Quality Assurance
The Akron headquarters houses a large-scale R&D lab and pilot plant, and the company also provides toll grinding (contract milling) services along with particle-characterization services such as BET surface-area analysis, laser-diffraction particle-size analysis, and X-ray sedigraph analysis.
5. Track Record and Partnerships
The company states it supplies general-purpose grinding equipment used across industries ranging from chocolate to tungsten carbide, and describes its Attritor technology as also being applied to fine-grinding and nanoparticle-dispersion processes for battery materials. Individual customer names are (undisclosed).
The company also stated it upgraded its pilot-plant grinding mill equipment in 2019, reinforcing its ability to support customers running process validation at pilot scale before full production.
6. Financial Status and Roadmap
As a privately held company, revenue and other financial figures are (undisclosed).
Third-party data provider ZoomInfo estimates Union Process’s annual revenue at approximately USD 9 million and headcount at 11-50 employees (third-party estimate, not an official company disclosure; confirmation needed).
The company continues to develop new products such as the Combination Attritor and the newer DMQX bead mill, expanding its lineup to address particle-size-reduction needs ranging broadly from 3mm-class down to nanometer-class.
This profile was compiled from publicly available sources including the company website (unionprocess.com), Thomasnet, and ZoomInfo. Unverified or undisclosed figures were not arbitrarily included.