Fresh Paint
Researchers discover China’s terracotta army coated in egg
Analysis of China’s terracotta army, a collection of 7,000 life-sized soldier and
horse figures in the mausoleum of the country’s first emperor, has revealed that
it was entirely covered with beaten egg when it was constructed. According to
a recent report in Discovery News, the discovery was made by German and
Italian chemists who analyzed samples from several of the figurines.
The egg served as a binder for colorful paints, which went over a layer of lacquer, according to the research team. “Egg paint is normally very stable, and
not soluble in water. This makes it less sensitive to humidity and moisture,”
said co-author Catharina Blaensdorf, a scientist at the Technical University of
Munich in Germany. Egg proteins would have also ensured the adhesion of the
paint to the lacquer, while also giving the paint thickness and texture, added
Blaensdorf’s colleague Ilaria Bonaduce, of the University of Italy.
The researchers thought animal glue might have served as a binder, but
all of the data pointed to egg instead. The pigments, they found, were bone
white, lead white, cerussite, quartz, cinnabar, malachite, charcoal black,
copper salts, Chinese purple and azurite.
The terracotta figures, dating from 210 BC, were discovered in
1974 by several local farmers near Xi'an, Shaanxi province, China
near the mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor.
55% professional and 45% DIY.
The automotive industry forms the
other main driver of demand for coatings in Argentina, both at the OEM
stage in terms of the subsequent
need for refinishes as the national
car fleet grows in size. The automotive industry in Argentina is trailing
in terms of finishing chemistry but
offers double-digit growth prospects
while it continues to serve a combination of domestic and export
demand. The re-emergence of Fiat as
a producer on Argentinean soil will
help to boost consumption in the
automotive OEM segment.
“Since the incredible recovery from
economic collapse in the country,
industry is booming and the paint
and coatings market with it. As the
second-largest economy in South
America, the paint and coatings market in Argentina is not one to be overlooked,” said Christopher Flanagan,
analyst at IRL and author of the
report. “This is the first time IRL has
studied Argentina in depth, and it is
a time of excellent prospects for the
market as growth is predicted in all
coatings segments.
“As consumer preference is shifting
towards higher quality paints, the
cheaper technologies appear to be
decreasingly used, though very high
technologies are still proving challenging to introduce at the moment,”
Flanagan concluded.
HEIDELBERG ACQUIRES
HI-TECH COATINGS
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG will
take over the high-performance coating
manufacturer Hi-Tech Coatings based
in the UK and the Netherlands. This
move will enable Heidelberg to add the
manufacture and sale of high-performance coatings for the production of
printed materials and packaging to its
solutions portfolio for consumables. In
2007, Hi-Tech Coatings achieved sales
of approximately € 25 million. CW
