Powder Coatings
nature supporting more the short
term needs of the industry.
“Commercially viable breakthrough
developments seem few and far
between,” said Iurilli. “We believe
that to make powder coatings more
than a niche contender in, for example, applications to non-metal/heat
sensitive substrates, more fundamental developments are needed
particularly on the binder and additives side. Working to enlarge the
application areas for powder coatings
should be a clear focus for all stakeholders in our industry.
“Though positive developments
obviously have taken and are taking
place, many raw material offerings
to powder coatings are still basically modifications or adaptations of
materials originally developed for
other uses such as liquid coatings or
plastics,” he continued. “More substantial developments on both pigments and additives catering more
directly to the specific needs and
challenges of powder coatings are in
demand.”
LOOKING AHEAD
DuPont’s strategy moving ahead
includes increasing customer satisfaction and growing the market for
powder coatings. “To improve and
exceed customer expectations we are
surveying customers using a tool
that asks one basic question: ‘Would
you recommend DuPont to a friend or
associate’? There are a few simple
follow up questions based on the
response,” said Dietz.
“We are also rolling out new product lines like DuPont Colorsplash by
Prismatic and leveraging all aspects
of our coatings business to provide
creative solutions to customer’s
unique needs. Additionally, we continue to develop the market for powder on MDF, chrome-look process,
architectural powder coatings and
antimicrobial powder coatings. We
also started our expansion into
Canada last year and continue to
invest in Asia with our fifth plant
that started up in 2007.”
After the restructuring process
that took place in 2006, Jotun
Powder Coatings had another strong
year in terms of top line growth and
profitability. Record-breaking volume growth was achieved in all the
main units in Europe, Middle East
and South East Asia.
“Over the past three years, Jotun
Powder Coatings has become
increasingly more integrated into the
Jotun Group. While the Divisional
headquarters remains in Dubai, in
2007, the primary research and
development department was moved
to Norway, to join forces with the
R&D departments of the other Jotun
divisions,” explained Iurilli. “By uniting its main R&D functions in
Norway, our organization can now
access a global pool of resources in
pigment laboratories, regulatory
information, and health, safety and
environmental data.
In March 2008 Jotun inaugurated
a state-of-the-art facility in India, a
zero-emission and environment
friendly paints and powder coatings
plant. “Key features of this manufac-
turing unit include a well-developed
recycling process wherein the waste
emitted by the production processes
is purified internally within the
plant and the recycled water is used
in the plant itself,” explaine Iurilli.
From a product perspective, throughout 2007 and 2008, Jotun has completed the introduction of its architectural
brand, Corro-Coat Durasol, a fluo-ropolymer-based powder coating engineered to provide long term weathering
performance comparable to traditional
liquid systems.
“With the construction industry
becoming more and more global,
Corro-Coat Durasol is now starting
to become popular among architects
and consultants in the Middle East
and South East Asia as an environmentally friendly alternative to liquid coatings,” Iurilli said. “In the
functional segment, Jotun launched
J-Trac anti-corrosive coatings, a
multi-layer fusion bond epoxy (FBE)
coating system developed for the protection of pipelines. This multi-layer
system provides an engineered coating that absorbs knocks while maintaining a high quality anti-corrosion
layer that defends against the
inevitability of corrosion.” CW
