Newark Quartz Plant

The Newark Quartz Plant is believed to have been opened in 1973, possibly following the relocation of quartz manufacturing from its original home at the East 152nd Street Facility in Cleveland (OH). Newark Quartz operated together with its sister factory, the Willoughby Quartz Plant in Ohio, and the overseas venture Westdeutsche Quarzschmelze GmbH of Germany in which GE acquired a shareholding to provide quartz for its European operations. Later, a fourth quartz plant was established at Wuhan to meet the Chinese requirements for GE Quartz. In 2008 GE decided to exit the business of manufacturing quartz and many other specialty materials. The Newark site as well as the other facilities in Willoughby, Germany and China were taken over by Momentive Performance Materials, which continues to operate these facilities today.