Coatings World - December 2011

the U.S.,” said Widner. He explained that many major metro areas now have passenger buses and even sanitation trucks that run on natural gas, so though the energy source is rather new to trucking, it’s been proven very safe and reliable. Currently, California has about 70 fueling stations for CNG tractors; there are another 30 stations located throughout North America and that number is slated to grow steadily as the required equipment becomes available.

Swan label granted to
Tikkurila’s Joker and
Remontti-Ässä interior paints

Two of Tikkurila’s interior paints, Joker and Remontti-Ässä, were granted the Swan label on in November 2011. Such recognition is a ringing endorsement of Tikkurila’s aim to develop products with a minimum impact on the environment. In addition to stringent environmental regulations, paints bearing the Swan label fulfill precise requirements for quality covering the entire product life cycle, from raw materials to the product’s manufacture and use, and waste disposal. Such a product must be better than, or as good as, products without an environmental label.

Joker with its silky matt finish is ideal for interior walls and ceilings in living rooms, bedrooms and children’s rooms, and similar dry spaces. The semi matt Remontti-Ässä is best suited to wall and ceiling surfaces, especially in interiors requiring continuous cleaning, such as kitchens, entrance halls and stairwells.

Joker and Remontti-Ässä belong to the top M1 category for indoor air as defined by the Finnish Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate. This is restricted to building materials from which very little or no compounds evaporate into room air. Both products also bear the EU Ecolabel and the Allergy and Asthma Federation’s collaboration symbol. Joker also fulfils the requirements of the Marine Equipment Directive (MED) for fire safety. The Key Flag logo on the packaging confirms the Finnish origin of these products. Paint cans bearing the Swan label will appear in shops at around the turn of the year, but

the paint on sale today is already identical with the paint that will be sold next year in cans marked with a Swan label.

Only products and services belonging to the best in their group are granted the official Nordic Ecolabel, known as the Swan label. The label’s criteria are set so that a maximum of 20 to 30 percent of products or services in each group can meet them. These criteria are revised every few years, to ensure that the Swan label continues to differentiate the best products and services, from an environmental perspective.

HumiSeal’s latest facility to include bigger R&D labs and a coatings academy for conformal coatings UK-based conformal coatings maker HumiSeal opened its brand new state-of-the-art facility in Winnersh. The new facility boasts automated manufacturing equipment as well as increased area for storage and distribution. Office space is also greatly increased giving additional room for R&D laboratories and a fully equipped applications and demonstrations room. A dedicated area has also been assigned to the Coatings Academy, a new development from HumiSeal that aims to standardize the training on conformal coatings.

AkzoNobel awards ‘Service First Applicator’ status to Apropos Apropos’ brand new polyester powder coating plant has been officially recognized by the world’s largest powder coating maker. AkzoNobel has awarded the plant Service First Applicator status—one of just forty such accreditations in the entire country of England. The powder coating plant was officially opened by the Mayor of Tameside in May, and has the capacity to handle orders worth up to £ 15 million per year.

ShawCor receives second contract to supply pipeline coatings for the Wheatsone Project ShawCor Ltd. announced that its pipecoat-ing division, Bredero Shaw, has received a

second contract from Chevron Australia Pty. Ltd. to provide pipeline coatings and related products and services for the flowlines on the Wheatstone Project. This contract is in addition to the previously announced contract to supply coatings on the gas supply trunkline for the Wheatstone Project. The combined value of the two contracts will exceed US$170 million. The insulated flowlines will transport production from the gas fields, which are located offshore North West Australia, to the Wheatstone platform.

The gas supply trunkline will transport the produced gas from the Wheatstone platform to the Wheatstone LNG facility that will be located at Ashburton North in Western Australia. The contracts will be executed at Bredero Shaw’s facilities in Kabil, Indonesia; Kuantan, Malaysia and Orkanger, Norway. The Kabil and Kuantan facilities are technol-ogy-based, full service coating plants that were built specifically to process large, complex projects in the Asia Pacific region. The Orkanger facility is a specialized coating plant established to provide high efficiency thermal insulation systems that meet the performance standards required for onshore and offshore insulated pipelines.

The contracts involve coating approximately 300 km of 10” to 44” diameter pipe that will be protected with fusion bonded epoxy or three layer anticorrosion coatings, Thermotite polypropylene insulation coating, SureFlo internal coating and HeviCote concrete weight coating. In addition Bredero Shaw has also received a contract for anode procurement and installation as well as custom coating. Work will commence during the second quarter of 2012.

Researchers develop
plastic coatings for a range
of industries from large
vessels to tiny lenses

Researchers at the University of Surrey have invented a new process to make bespoke coatings that could one day reduce the drag resistance of ships and aeroplanes and thereby lower fuel consumption.