Recently Issued Accounting Standards	12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2018
New Accounting Pronouncements And Changes In Accounting Principles [Abstract]
Description Of New Accounting Pronouncements Not Yet Adopted [Text Block]	Note 3 – Recently Issued Accounting Standards The FASB issued an accounting standard update in October 2018 to provide guidance on the risks associated with financial assets and liabilities that are permitted to be hedged. The amendments in this update permit use of the Overnight Index Swap (“OIS”) rate based on the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) as a U.S. benchmark interest rate in addition to the other four rates: interest rates on direct Treasury obligations of the U.S. government (UST), the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) swap rate, the OIS rate based on the Fed Funds Effective Rate and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) Municipal Swap Rate. The amendments in this update also apply to all entities that elect to apply hedge accounting to benchmark interest rate hedges. The guidance within this accounting standard update is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2018, and interim periods within those fiscal years. The amendments in this update should be adopted on a prospective basis for qualifying new or re-designated hedging relationships entered into on or after the date of adoption. Early adoption is permitted. The Company has elected to early adopt the guidance in this accounting standard update during the fourth quarter of 2018, with no impact to its financial statements. The Company does not currently use any derivative instruments designated as hedges but may choose to in the future. The FASB issued an accounting standard update in August 2018 that modifies certain disclosure requirements for employers that sponsor defined benefit pension or other postretirement plans. The amendments in this accounting standard update remove disclosures that are no longer considered cost beneficial, clarify the specific requirements of certain disclosures, and add new disclosure requirements as relevant. The guidance within this accounting standard update is effective for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2020, and should be applied retrospectively to all periods presented. Early adoption is permitted. The Company has not early adopted the guidance and is currently evaluating its implementation. The FASB issued an accounting standard update in August 2018 that clarifies the accounting for implementation costs incurred in a cloud computing arrangement under a service contract. This guidance generally aligns the requirements for capitalizing implementation costs incurred in a hosting arrangement under a service contract with the requirements for capitalizing implementation costs related to internal-use software. The guidance within this accounting standard update is effective for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2019 and should be applied either retrospectively or prospectively to all implementation costs incurred after the date of adoption. Early adoption is permitted. The Company has not early adopted the guidance and is currently evaluating its implementation. The FASB issued an accounting standard update in August 2018 that modifies certain disclosure requirements for fair value measurements. The guidance removes certain disclosure requirements regarding transfers between levels of the fair value hierarchy as well as the valuation processes for certain fair value measurements. Further, the guidance added certain disclosure requirements including unrealized gains and losses and significant unobservable inputs used to develop certain fair value measurements. The guidance within this accounting standard update is effective for annual and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2019, and should be applied prospectively in the initial year of adoption or prospectively to all periods presented, depending on the amended disclosure requirement. Early adoption is permitted. The Company has not early adopted the guidance and is currently evaluating its implementation. The FASB issued an accounting standard update in June 2018 to simplify the accounting for share-based payment transactions with non-employees of the Company. The guidance within this accounting standard update generally requires that share-based payment transactions for acquiring goods or services from non-employees of the Company be accounted for under the same guidance and model as all other share-based payment transactions, including employees of the Company. The guidance within this accounting standard update is effective for annual and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2018. Early adoption is permitted. The Company elected to early adopt the guidance within this accounting standard updated in the second quarter of 2018 with no impact to its financial statements. The FASB issued an accounting standard update in February 2018 that allows a reclassification from AOCI to retained earnings for stranded tax effects resulting from U.S. Tax Reform enacted in December 2017. The guidance within this accounting standard update is effective for annual and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2018, and should be applied either in the period of adoption or retrospectively to each period in which the effect of the change in the U.S. federal corporate income tax rate in U.S. Tax Reform is recognized. Early adoption is permitted. The Company has not early adopted the guidance and is currently evaluating its implementation. The FASB issued an accounting standard update in January 2017 to clarify the definition of a business with the objective of adding guidance to assist companies with evaluating whether transactions should be accounted for as acquisitions (or disposals) of assets or businesses. The amendments in this accounting standard update provided a more robust framework to use in determining when a set of assets and activities is a business. The guidance within this accounting standard update was effective for annual and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2017. Early adoption was permitted in limited circumstances, and the amendments in this accounting standard update were required to be applied prospectively, with no disclosures required at transition. The Company adopted the guidance in the first quarter of 2018, as required, with no impact to its financial statements. The FASB issued an accounting standard update in November 2016 requiring that the statement of cash flows explain both the change in the total cash and cash equivalents, and also the amounts generally described as restricted cash or restricted cash equivalents. This required amounts generally described as restricted cash or restricted cash equivalents be included with cash and cash equivalents when reconciling the beginning and ending amounts shown on the statement of cash flows. The guidance within this accounting standard update was effective for annual and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2017. Early adoption was permitted, and the guidance required application using a retrospective transition method to each period presented when adopted. The Company adopted the guidance in the first quarter of 2018, as required. Adoption of the guidance did not have an impact on the Company’s earnings or balance sheet but did result in changes to certain disclosures within the statement of cash flows, including cash flows from investing activities and total cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash. See Note 11 of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements. The FASB issued an accounting standard update in October 2016 to improve the accounting for the income tax consequences of intra-entity transfers of assets other than inventory. The provisions in this update allowed an entity to recognize current and deferred income taxes of an intra-entity transfer of an asset other than inventory when the transfer occurs rather than when the asset has been sold to an outside party. The guidance within this accounting standard update was effective for annual and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2017. Early adoption was permitted, and the guidance required application on a modified retrospective basis through a cumulative-effect adjustment directly to retained earnings as of the beginning of the period of adoption. The Company adopted the guidance in the first quarter of 2018, as required, with no impact to its financial statements. The FASB issued an accounting standard update in August 2016 to standardize how certain transactions are classified in the statement of cash flows. Specific transactions covered by the accounting standard update include debt prepayment or debt extinguishment costs, settlement of zero-coupon debt instruments, contingent consideration payments made after a business combination, proceeds from the settlement of insurance claims, proceeds from the settlement of corporate and bank owned life insurance policies, distributions received from equity method investments and beneficial interest in securitization transactions. The guidance within this accounting standard update was effective for annual and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2017. Early adoption was permitted, provided that all of the amendments were adopted in the same period. The guidance required application using a retrospective transition method. The Company adopted the guidance in the first quarter of 2018 as required, with no impact to its financial statements. The FASB issued an accounting standard update in February 2016 regarding the accounting and disclosure for leases. During 2018, the FASB issued a series of accounting standard updates to clarify and expand on the original 2016 implementation guidance, including providing an accounting policy election for lessors, certain targeted improvements around comparative reporting requirements and accounting for lease and non-lease components by lessors as well as other technical corrections and improvements. The amendments in these 2018 updates did not change the core principles of the guidance previously issued in February 2016. The guidance within all of the leasing accounting standard updates are effective for annual and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2018, and should be applied on a modified retrospective basis, applying the transition requirements either (a) at the beginning of the earliest period presented in the financial statements in the year of adoption (January 1, 2017) or (b) in the period of adoption (January 1, 2019). Early adoption is permitted, but the Company has not early adopted. The Company will adopt the guidance in the first quarter of 2019, as required, using a modified retrospective transition approach. The Company will apply the transition requirements in the period of adoption (as of January 1, 2019), as permitted. As such the Company will neither restate comparative periods for the effects of this lease accounting guidance or provide the disclosures requirements for comparative periods. The Company anticipates electing to apply certain of the permitted practical expedients within the new lease accounting guidance, and the Company also anticipates making certain accounting policy elections as a result of adopting the new lease accounting guidance. As of December 31, 2018, the Company has substantially completed its implementation planning and its impact assessment related to the new lease accounting guidance. Work performed to date includes developing a detailed project plan, identifying and establishing a cross-functional implementation team and developing pre-adoption internal controls. In addition, the Company gathered an inventory of the Company’s explicit outstanding leases globally, performed certain review procedures to ensure completeness of its lease population and abstracted critical lease information from the lease population for inclusion within the Company’s leasing software. Also, the Company has begun preliminary considerations for how the new lease accounting guidance may impact Houghton, as it pertains to the potential Combination. The Company has calculated a preliminary transition adjustment which will be finalized and reflected in the Company’s financial statements starting after the effective date of January 1, 2019. While the Company’s implementation of this lease accounting guidance is still on-going, the Company anticipates adoption of this guidance will have a material impact on its balance sheet as it expects the majority of its leases will be recorded on its balance sheet by establishing right of use assets and associated lease liabilities. Based on all current available information, the Company estimates that its right of use assets and associated lease liabilities will be approximately $20 million to $30 million as of January 1, 2019. The FASB issued an accounting standard update in May 2014 regarding the accounting for and disclosure of revenue recognition. Specifically, the update outlined a single comprehensive model for entities to use in accounting for revenue arising from contracts with customers, which will be common to both U.S. GAAP and International Financial Reporting Standards. The guidance was effective for annual and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2016, and allowed for full retrospective adoption of prior period data or a modified retrospective adoption. Early adoption was not permitted. In August 2015, the FASB issued an accounting standard update to delay the effective date of the new revenue standard by one year, or, in other words, to be effective for annual and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2017. Entities were permitted to adopt the new revenue standard early but not before the original effective date. During 2016 and 2017, the FASB issued a series of accounting standard updates to clarify and expand on the implementation guidance, including principal versus agent considerations, identification of performance obligations, licensing, other technical corrections and adding certain practical expedients. The amendments in these 2016 and 2017 updates did not change the core principles of the guidance previously issued in May 2014. As part of the Company’s impact assessment for the implementation of the new revenue recognition guidance, the Company reviewed its historical accounting policies and practices to identify potential differences with the requirements of the new revenue recognition standard as it related to the Company’s contracts and sales arrangements. In addition, the impact assessment and work performed included global and cross functional interviews and questionnaires, sales agreement and other sales document reviews, as well as technical considerations for the Company’s future transactional accounting, financial reporting and disclosure requirements. The Company has also progressed its assessment of how the new revenue recognition guidance may impact Houghton, as it pertains to the pending Combination. The Company adopted the guidance in the first quarter of 2018 as required, electing to use a modified retrospective adoption approach applied to those contracts which were not completed as of January 1, 2018. Comparative information has not been restated and continues to be reported under the accounting standards in effect for those periods. In addition, the Company elected to apply certain of the permitted practical expedients within the revenue recognition guidance and make certain accounting policy elections including those related to significant financing components, sales taxes and shipping and handling activities. Adoption of the revenue recognition guidance did not have a material impact on the Company’s reported earnings or cash flows, however, adoption did increase the amount and level of disclosures concerning the Company’s net sales and did result in one adjustment to the Company’s balance sheet. As a result of the Company’s impact assessment and adoption using the modified retrospective adoption approach, the Company recorded a cumulative effect of an accounting change as of January 1, 2018 to adjust the Company’s estimate of variable consideration relating to customers’ expected rights to return product. This adjustment resulted in an increase to other current liabilities of $1.0 million, an increase to non-current deferred tax assets of $0.2 million and a decrease to retained earnings of $0.8 million. There were no other impacts recorded as a result of adopting the revenue recognition guidance in 2018 or prior years and the Company expects the impact to be immaterial on an ongoing basis. See Note 4 and 18 of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.

Note 3 – Recently Issued Accounting Standards

The FASB issued an accounting standard update in October 2018 to provide guidance on the risks associated with financial assets and liabilities that are permitted to be hedged. The amendments in this update permit use of the Overnight Index Swap (“OIS”) rate based on the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) as a U.S. benchmark interest rate in addition to the other four rates: interest rates on direct Treasury obligations of the U.S. government (UST), the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) swap rate, the OIS rate based on the Fed Funds Effective Rate and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) Municipal Swap Rate. The amendments in this update also apply to all entities that elect to apply hedge accounting to benchmark interest rate hedges. The guidance within this accounting standard update is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2018, and interim periods within those fiscal years. The amendments in this update should be adopted on a prospective basis for qualifying new or re-designated hedging relationships entered into on or after the date of adoption. Early adoption is permitted. The Company has elected to early adopt the guidance in this accounting standard update during the fourth quarter of 2018, with no impact to its financial statements. The Company does not currently use any derivative instruments designated as hedges but may choose to in the future.

The FASB issued an accounting standard update in August 2018 that modifies certain disclosure requirements for employers that sponsor defined benefit pension or other postretirement plans. The amendments in this accounting standard update remove disclosures that are no longer considered cost beneficial, clarify the specific requirements of certain disclosures, and add new disclosure requirements as relevant. The guidance within this accounting standard update is effective for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2020, and should be applied retrospectively to all periods presented. Early adoption is permitted. The Company has not early adopted the guidance and is currently evaluating its implementation.

The FASB issued an accounting standard update in August 2018 that clarifies the accounting for implementation costs incurred in a cloud computing arrangement under a service contract. This guidance generally aligns the requirements for capitalizing implementation costs incurred in a hosting arrangement under a service contract with the requirements for capitalizing implementation costs related to internal-use software. The guidance within this accounting standard update is effective for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2019 and should be applied either retrospectively or prospectively to all implementation costs incurred after the date of adoption. Early adoption is permitted. The Company has not early adopted the guidance and is currently evaluating its implementation.

The FASB issued an accounting standard update in August 2018 that modifies certain disclosure requirements for fair value measurements. The guidance removes certain disclosure requirements regarding transfers between levels of the fair value hierarchy as well as the valuation processes for certain fair value measurements. Further, the guidance added certain disclosure requirements including unrealized gains and losses and significant unobservable inputs used to develop certain fair value measurements. The guidance within this accounting standard update is effective for annual and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2019, and should be applied prospectively in the initial year of adoption or prospectively to all periods presented, depending on the amended disclosure requirement. Early adoption is permitted. The Company has not early adopted the guidance and is currently evaluating its implementation.

The FASB issued an accounting standard update in June 2018 to simplify the accounting for share-based payment transactions with non-employees of the Company. The guidance within this accounting standard update generally requires that share-based payment transactions for acquiring goods or services from non-employees of the Company be accounted for under the same guidance and model as all other share-based payment transactions, including employees of the Company. The guidance within this accounting standard update is effective for annual and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2018. Early adoption is permitted. The Company elected to early adopt the guidance within this accounting standard updated in the second quarter of 2018 with no impact to its financial statements.

The FASB issued an accounting standard update in February 2018 that allows a reclassification from AOCI to retained earnings for stranded tax effects resulting from U.S. Tax Reform enacted in December 2017. The guidance within this accounting standard update is effective for annual and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2018, and should be applied either in the period of adoption or retrospectively to each period in which the effect of the change in the U.S. federal corporate income tax rate in U.S. Tax Reform is recognized. Early adoption is permitted. The Company has not early adopted the guidance and is currently evaluating its implementation.

The FASB issued an accounting standard update in January 2017 to clarify the definition of a business with the objective of adding guidance to assist companies with evaluating whether transactions should be accounted for as acquisitions (or disposals) of assets or businesses. The amendments in this accounting standard update provided a more robust framework to use in determining when a set of assets and activities is a business. The guidance within this accounting standard update was effective for annual and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2017. Early adoption was permitted in limited circumstances, and the amendments in this accounting standard update were required to be applied prospectively, with no disclosures required at transition. The Company adopted the guidance in the first quarter of 2018, as required, with no impact to its financial statements.

The FASB issued an accounting standard update in November 2016 requiring that the statement of cash flows explain both the change in the total cash and cash equivalents, and also the amounts generally described as restricted cash or restricted cash equivalents. This required amounts generally described as restricted cash or restricted cash equivalents be included with cash and cash equivalents when reconciling the beginning and ending amounts shown on the statement of cash flows. The guidance within this accounting standard update was effective for annual and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2017. Early adoption was permitted, and the guidance required application using a retrospective transition method to each period presented when adopted. The Company adopted the guidance in the first quarter of 2018, as required. Adoption of the guidance did not have an impact on the Company’s earnings or balance sheet but did result in changes to certain disclosures within the statement of cash flows, including cash flows from investing activities and total cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash. See Note 11 of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.

The FASB issued an accounting standard update in October 2016 to improve the accounting for the income tax consequences of intra-entity transfers of assets other than inventory. The provisions in this update allowed an entity to recognize current and deferred income taxes of an intra-entity transfer of an asset other than inventory when the transfer occurs rather than when the asset has been sold to an outside party. The guidance within this accounting standard update was effective for annual and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2017. Early adoption was permitted, and the guidance required application on a modified retrospective basis through a cumulative-effect adjustment directly to retained earnings as of the beginning of the period of adoption. The Company adopted the guidance in the first quarter of 2018, as required, with no impact to its financial statements.

The FASB issued an accounting standard update in August 2016 to standardize how certain transactions are classified in the statement of cash flows. Specific transactions covered by the accounting standard update include debt prepayment or debt extinguishment costs, settlement of zero-coupon debt instruments, contingent consideration payments made after a business combination, proceeds from the settlement of insurance claims, proceeds from the settlement of corporate and bank owned life insurance policies, distributions received from equity method investments and beneficial interest in securitization transactions. The guidance within this accounting standard update was effective for annual and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2017. Early adoption was permitted, provided that all of the amendments were adopted in the same period. The guidance required application using a retrospective transition method. The Company adopted the guidance in the first quarter of 2018 as required, with no impact to its financial statements.

The FASB issued an accounting standard update in February 2016 regarding the accounting and disclosure for leases. During 2018, the FASB issued a series of accounting standard updates to clarify and expand on the original 2016 implementation guidance, including providing an accounting policy election for lessors, certain targeted improvements around comparative reporting requirements and accounting for lease and non-lease components by lessors as well as other technical corrections and improvements. The amendments in these 2018 updates did not change the core principles of the guidance previously issued in February 2016. The guidance within all of the leasing accounting standard updates are effective for annual and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2018, and should be applied on a modified retrospective basis, applying the transition requirements either (a) at the beginning of the earliest period presented in the financial statements in the year of adoption (January 1, 2017) or (b) in the period of adoption (January 1, 2019). Early adoption is permitted, but the Company has not early adopted. The Company will adopt the guidance in the first quarter of 2019, as required, using a modified retrospective transition approach. The Company will apply the transition requirements in the period of adoption (as of January 1, 2019), as permitted. As such the Company will neither restate comparative periods for the effects of this lease accounting guidance or provide the disclosures requirements for comparative periods. The Company anticipates electing to apply certain of the permitted practical expedients within the new lease accounting guidance, and the Company also anticipates making certain accounting policy elections as a result of adopting the new lease accounting guidance.

As of December 31, 2018, the Company has substantially completed its implementation planning and its impact assessment related to the new lease accounting guidance. Work performed to date includes developing a detailed project plan, identifying and establishing a cross-functional implementation team and developing pre-adoption internal controls. In addition, the Company gathered an inventory of the Company’s explicit outstanding leases globally, performed certain review procedures to ensure completeness of its lease population and abstracted critical lease information from the lease population for inclusion within the Company’s leasing software. Also, the Company has begun preliminary considerations for how the new lease accounting guidance may impact Houghton, as it pertains to the potential Combination. The Company has calculated a preliminary transition adjustment which will be finalized and reflected in the Company’s financial statements starting after the effective date of January 1, 2019. While the Company’s implementation of this lease accounting guidance is still on-going, the Company anticipates adoption of this guidance will have a material impact on its balance sheet as it expects the majority of its leases will be recorded on its balance sheet by establishing right of use assets and associated lease liabilities. Based on all current available information, the Company estimates that its right of use assets and associated lease liabilities will be approximately $20 million to $30 million as of January 1, 2019.

The FASB issued an accounting standard update in May 2014 regarding the accounting for and disclosure of revenue recognition. Specifically, the update outlined a single comprehensive model for entities to use in accounting for revenue arising from contracts with customers, which will be common to both U.S. GAAP and International Financial Reporting Standards. The guidance was effective for annual and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2016, and allowed for full retrospective adoption of prior period data or a modified retrospective adoption. Early adoption was not permitted. In August 2015, the FASB issued an accounting standard update to delay the effective date of the new revenue standard by one year, or, in other words, to be effective for annual and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2017. Entities were permitted to adopt the new revenue standard early but not before the original effective date. During 2016 and 2017, the FASB issued a series of accounting standard updates to clarify and expand on the implementation guidance, including principal versus agent considerations, identification of performance obligations, licensing, other technical corrections and adding certain practical expedients. The amendments in these 2016 and 2017 updates did not change the core principles of the guidance previously issued in May 2014.

As part of the Company’s impact assessment for the implementation of the new revenue recognition guidance, the Company reviewed its historical accounting policies and practices to identify potential differences with the requirements of the new revenue recognition standard as it related to the Company’s contracts and sales arrangements. In addition, the impact assessment and work performed included global and cross functional interviews and questionnaires, sales agreement and other sales document reviews, as well as technical considerations for the Company’s future transactional accounting, financial reporting and disclosure requirements. The Company has also progressed its assessment of how the new revenue recognition guidance may impact Houghton, as it pertains to the pending Combination.

The Company adopted the guidance in the first quarter of 2018 as required, electing to use a modified retrospective adoption approach applied to those contracts which were not completed as of January 1, 2018. Comparative information has not been restated and continues to be reported under the accounting standards in effect for those periods. In addition, the Company elected to apply certain of the permitted practical expedients within the revenue recognition guidance and make certain accounting policy elections including those related to significant financing components, sales taxes and shipping and handling activities. Adoption of the revenue recognition guidance did not have a material impact on the Company’s reported earnings or cash flows, however, adoption did increase the amount and level of disclosures concerning the Company’s net sales and did result in one adjustment to the Company’s balance sheet. As a result of the Company’s impact assessment and adoption using the modified retrospective adoption approach, the Company recorded a cumulative effect of an accounting change as of January 1, 2018 to adjust the Company’s estimate of variable consideration relating to customers’ expected rights to return product. This adjustment resulted in an increase to other current liabilities of $1.0 million, an increase to non-current deferred tax assets of $0.2 million and a decrease to retained earnings of $0.8 million. There were no other impacts recorded as a result of adopting the revenue recognition guidance in 2018 or prior years and the Company expects the impact to be immaterial on an ongoing basis. See Note 4 and 18 of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.