GE Silicones-OSi Specialties Announces Opening of New Custom Elastomers Facility; Garrett, Indiana, facility will serve customers with full service formulating capabilities

WILTON, Conn.--Jan. 6, 2004--GE Silicones-OSi Specialties today announced the April 2004 opening of its new full service formulation facility for custom liquid silicone elastomers. The new facility will be located in Garrett, Indiana, adjacent to the Company's custom high consistency elastomers division, American Silicones, Inc. (ASI). The dedicated liquid elastomers facility will offer formulating, mixing, compounding and blending capabilities to customers serving the healthcare, consumer goods and automotive industries.

"Our new custom liquid elastomers facility will offer a unique portfolio of value-add services," said Andres Pugi, Americas Elastomers Business Leader for GE Silicones-OSi Specialties. "This capability will expand our service offering to customers for leading edge, custom elastomer products, and it will provide a powerful complement to the global GE product line of LIM(R) / LSR silicone materials. And perhaps most critical, this new facility will provide a competitive edge with quick turnaround of products for our customers."

The new custom liquid elastomer formulation facility will offer one-of-a-kind services that can link the materials development expertise of GE with the injection molding expertise of silicone fabricators, offering:

-- Custom mixing of bases and additives for unique end-use performance characteristics

-- Customer-specific grades:

-- Incorporating a variety of additives, colors and product enhancements to achieve specific performance characteristics

-- Available in a range of production sizes to meet customer demands

Longer-term expansion plans for the new facility include the following:

-- Start-up and low-volume production runs in a laboratory environment

-- Troubleshooting services to optimize tools and materials

-- Prototyping for custom applications

-- Custom testing and packaging

The new GE Silicones-OSi Specialties custom liquid elastomers capability builds on current Company expertise in custom application development for high consistency elastomer (HCE) products. Located at facilities in Chino, California, and Garrett, Indiana, custom HCE services include formulation, processing, and pre-forming assistance, as well as full service mixing capabilities for blending, filler addition, color matching, and catalyst selection. Quality control laboratories offer testing to ASTM and customer specifications, and both HCE centers are ISO9001-registered.

GE Silicones-OSi Specialties, an operating division of GE Advanced Materials, is a global manufacturer of silicone products with headquarters in Wilton, Connecticut. It has 3,500 employees and manufactures more than 4,000 products for the aerospace, automotive, healthcare, personal care, tire, and wire and cable industries. Its website is www.GESilicones.com.