An Amazing Story

In the early 50's, Marbon, a small chemical company in Indiana invented a unique plastic material, called Cycolac ABS, from acrylonitril,e polybutadiene, and styrene.  With properties of Toughness, Hardness, and Rigidity; it would be come the world's biggest volume engineering plastic.

Demand for Cycolac outgrew the limited plant in Gary, Indiana.  In 1958 a new plant on a large site near Parkersburg W.V. started production of Cycolac. Marbon became Borg Warner Chemicals, the largest division of Borg Warner, grew to be the world's largest producer of  ABS plastics, and expanded into petrochemicals and polymer additives.

It All Centered In Parkersburg

Parkersburg was the business, administrative, and technical world headquarters for Borg Warner Chemicals, withover 4,000 employees world-wide and over 2,000 employees in Parkersburg.  Technical innovation resulted in the development and spin-off of many new businesses and products in Parkersburg and other locations.

To meet the world-wide demand for Cycolac, plants were built at multiple U.S locations, and in Japan, Scotland, Canada, Holland, Australia, and Mexico.

The BWC Museum is dedicated to preserving the history, artifacts, and stories of this amazing plastic and the exceptional employees that made it all happen from right here in Parkersburg.

Click on the menu tab "History" for more details and information.