According to a report by BBC News, the
development work is being carried out
by the UK's Defence Science and
Technology Laboratory (DSTL). Dr.
Steven Mitchell, from DSTL's headquarters at Porton Down in Wiltshire, said
the next generation of coatings could be
engineered to absorb chemical warfare
agents. Further down the line, scientists
are looking into reactive coatings. These
would incorporate catalysts and possibly enzymes allowing the paint to "self-decontaminate." Currently, strippable,
or peelable, coatings are used when a
new camouflage is required, changing a
vehicle's color from green to, for example,
light stone in order to blend with desert
terrain. But even if something is not visible from far away, it may reveal itself by
reflecting sunlight. The paint can also
alter the vehicle's glint signature, helping conceal it from hostile troops. The
coating is applied just like normal paint,
often using commercially available spray
guns. The paint can be used to temporarily change a vehicle's camouflage.
BECKERS INDUSTRIAL COATINGS &
MATOX FORM R&D RELATIONSHIP
Beckers Industrial Coatings Holdings
AB and MatOx Oy have entered into a
three-year research and development
collaboration. Under the terms of this
agreement, MatOx will use computational approaches to design new and
unique coatings products with controllable functionality, which Beckers will
have the option to bring to market.
MatOx, the wholly owned Finnish subsidiary of UK-based MatOx Ltd., will
work with academic staff at Helsinki
University of Technology to develop and
apply computational modeling and simulation in the design of new materials.
MatOx will be focusing on several projects directly related to "smart" coatings,
such as self-cleaning behavior or physical properties that change in response to
external stimuli.
INTERNATIONAL PAINT TO MERGE
DIST. CENTER WITH AKZONOBEL
STORE IN BATON ROUGE, LA
International Paint Protective
Coatings, an AkzoNobel company, will
merge its distribution center in Baton
Rouge, LA, with the local AkzoNobel
International Paint Protective Coatings has
merged its distribution center in Baton
Rouge, LA/USA, with the local AkzoNobel
company-owned store in the same locale, in
order to offer a full selection of International
Paint Protective Coatings and Devoe High
Performance Coatings products.
company-owned store in the same
locale—the first U.S. location to offer a
full selection of International Paint
Protective Coatings, Devoe High
Performance Coatings and Glidden
architectural paint products under
one roof. Slated to begin joint operation in the first week of November,
2009, the state-of-the-art 4,000+-
square-foot facility, with full automated racking, tinting and shipping capabilities, will serve high-performance
protective coatings customers in the
downstream oil and gas market segment, the water and wastewater market segments, as well as its traditional
institutional, commercial and residential painting customers. The Baton
Rouge location will be one of several
distribution consolidations anticipated to occur during 2010.
BASF REFINISH LAUNCHES
NEW WEB SITE DESIGN
BASF Automotive Refinish has
launched a new web site design at
www.basfrefinish.com. The first
thing users will notice is that the
new design offers a clean appearance
and streamlined content. BASF also
made major changes to the site navigation structure, which provides
users with improved communication
and greater ease of navigation. The
site continues to be multilingual, featuring English, Spanish and French
language choices. Another new fea-
ture to the site is an upgraded search
interface, providing an interactive
results grid allowing for column sorting and resizable columns.
H.B. FULLER LAUNCHES
NEW MICROSITE
H.B. Fuller has launched a new
microsite illustrating its singular
focus on perfecting adhesives. The
site, www.hbfullerstrength.com, has
been designed as a resource with specific examples of the people, products
and processes involved in developing
H.B. Fuller’s adhesives formulas.
Visitors can learn more about H.B.
Fuller’s performance and knowledge
by reading case studies and down-loading a capabilities brochure at the
site. The microsite is currently in
English, Spanish and German and
additional languages are being developed. It also includes a blog for visitors to engage with H.B. Fuller in discussions of adhesives technologies
and solutions.
PPG UNVEILS CERTIFIED
METAL PANEL PROGRAM
PPG’s coil and extrusion coatings group
has introduced the PPG Certified
Metal Panel Program (PPG/CMPP).
Modeled after the popular PPG
Certified Applicator Program
(PPG/CAP), the PPG/CMPP gives
architects a direct channel to an elite
group of metal panel manufacturers.
PPG/CMPP members are certified by
PPG to apply high-performance
Duranar, Duranar ULTRA-Cool and
Coraflon fluoropolymer coatings to
metal building components, or to specify, design, fabricate and/or install aluminum or steel components prepainted
with these coatings. PPG said the introduction of the PPG/CMPP is the final
step in creating a formalized supply
chain of premier building companies
delivering high-quality, PPG-certified
solutions for virtually every surface of
the building envelope. CW
