ferred to EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety & Pollution Prevention
for further assessment.
The specific criteria that would
be applied to determine a chemical’s priority ranking address: human health hazards;
potential environmental effects; a chemical’s industrial, commercial and/or consumer uses; whether it persists or
accumulates in the body or the environment; and the production volume of the
chemical in commerce. The tool also takes
into account important factors like whether
a chemical is used in children’s products or
detected in biomonitoring programs.
PPG to increase production
capacity for precipitated silica
PPG Industries is increasing its global precipitated silica production capacity by
more than 18,000 tons per year in response to growing global demand. The capacity expansion includes projects at
PPG’s Lake Charles, LA, and Delfzijl, the
Netherlands, manufacturing locations.
Kevin Braun, PPG General Manager, Silica Products, said that some of the capacity will begin to come online during the
fourth quarter 2011, and that the expansion projects will be completed by the end
of 2012.
Bayferrox iron oxide pigments for the coloring of asphalt
At the recent wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in London, Lanxess’
Bayferrox played a part in adding color and radiance to the proceedings. In the
run-up to the wedding, the roads and
footpaths in the area around Buckingham Palace were resurfaced with stone
mastic asphalt colored with Bayferrox
130 C iron oxide red pigment from
Lanxess. “We were the only local pigment supplier able to deliver the right
shade in the required quality. We were
also able to provide exactly the packaging the customer wanted,” said
Simon Kentesber, sales manager inorganic pigments at Lanzess Ltd., based
in Branston near Birmingham, UK. The
asphalt was supplied by Eurovia Roadstone Ltd., a subsidiary of Eurovia (SA), which is a world-leading asphalt manufacturer headquartered in Rueil-Malmaison near Paris.
The asphalt on the roads and footpaths outside Buckingham Palace are subjected
to enormous stress from millions of tourists and hundreds of thousands of vehicles
every year. This wear and tear takes its toll, resulting in cracking, crazing and sometimes even potholes. The specifications on the quality of the new surfacing were correspondingly strict. Eurovia Roadstone was able to comply with the requirements in
terms of durability and quality of finish and also flexibility and speed of laying. The
company supplied two different qualities of surfacing to distinguish between the footpaths and the roads, but also ensured that the two surfaces blended in with one another. One particular challenge was the very tight timing of the construction work. It
had to be carried out with maximum precision as quickly as possible and at night to
minimize disruption to the “official” operations at Buckingham Palace, such as the
regular Changing of the Guard and the daily flow of visitors.
Bayferrox 130 C is a synthetic red iron oxide marketed as a compact pigment,
which means it has excellent free-flowing and low-dusting characteristics, the company said. It is produced in Krefeld-Uerdingen using the Laux process, a manufacturing technology that has been used exclusively by Lanxess for 85 years.
Royal pigments – red asphalt in front of
Buckingham Palace.
Exova expands services
Exova, the global testing group, has expanded the services available from its Singapore laboratory to include a number of
key coatings tests. Previously, the Far East
lab had specialized in metallurgical, mechanical, chemical, and corrosion testing for
metal materials for the oil and gas industries. Now, Exova has made a significant investment in equipment and training to
provide a number of key testing capabilities
for coatings in Singapore. The new testing
is accredited to ISO17025. The global
group’s facility at Salford, UK, a specialist in
coatings testing, has assisted with technology transfer. The tests available at the Singapore lab include cathodic disbondment,
hot water soak, non-destructive measurement of film, impact resistance and penetration resistance of pipeline coatings.
Arkema unveils new trademark
Arkema Coating Resins has launched a new
trademark that will be applied to the company’s waterborne emulsion polymer products sold worldwide. The new name,
ENCOR Polymers, will be used for both current and new products sold for use in architectural and industrial coatings, traffic paints,
specialty coatings, pressure sensitive adhesives, sealants, construction products, graphics arts and floor maintenance products.
“This is an important step as we
strengthen our capabilities to serve our global
customers,” said Richard Jenkins, global
group president for Arkema Coating Resins.
“We recently announced our decision to
build a waterborne emulsion manufacturing
facility in China and closed the acquisition of
the coating resins businesses of Total. One of
our most important next steps is to create a
comprehensive global product offering to
meet our customers’ needs. This new trade-
mark is part of that process.”
ENCOR Polymers will principally re-
place the UCAR trademark now applied to
many of the company’s waterborne emul-
sion products, as well as the Craymul and
Esi-Cryl trademarks acquired with the pur-
chase of the coating resins businesses of
Cook Composites and Polymers and Cray
Valley. Other Arkema Coating Resins trade-
marks, including SNAP Structured Nano-
Acrylic Polymers and EnVia, will continue
to be used in all geographies. CW
72 | Coatings World
www.coatingsworld.com
October 2011
