Coatings World - April 2015

Low- and Zero-VOC Technology
April 2015 www.coatingsworld.com Coatings World | 33

PPG understands that continued innovation in low- and zero-VOC coatings is essential to maintaining leadership status. “The product development we do in-house and in partnership with our customers is critical to that mission,” said the spokesperson.

Benjamin Moore is another coatings company at the forefront of manufacturing environmentally friendly paints. “We have continued to expand throughout our product portfolio to offer a broad range of low-and zero-VOC products for all end-users – homeowners, contractors and specifiers,” said Patricia Bennett, brand manager at Benjamin Moore.

Benjamin Moore offers a number of
products for both residential consumers
and commercial applications that are low- or zero-VOC. “For
consumers, Natura is our greenest product with zero-VOC and
zero emissions, but we also offer other premium zero-VOC
products such as Aura, Regal Select and ben,” said Bennett.
“For commercial users, Ultra Spec 500 offers contractors a
zero-VOC option.”
All of these products are tinted on Benjamin Moore’s pro-
prietary zero-VOC Gennex colorant platform, which ensures
VOCs are not added back into the final product once they are
tinted. “This is a distinguishing factor versus many other com-
petitive paints,” Bennett noted.

Sherwin-Williams offers a full range of low- and zero-
VOC coating solutions. These solutions range from powder
coatings, high and ultra high solids solventborne coatings
to waterborne coatings. “We offer a variety of baking, air
dry and UV curable solutions to meet our customer’s coating
needs,” said Bartoszek. “A few recent product introductions
include Powdura Sprint, a fast-curing powder coating for
MDF applications; Powdura OneCure, a two-coating mono-
cure system for heavy equipment and general finishing; and
the Ultra-Cure Waterborne UV Pigmented Blending System
for wood finishing. We have a broad offering of formalde-
hyde-free wood finishes that includes lacquers, conversion
varnishes, primers and surfacers.”
PPG offers customers a complete end-to-end solution for a
low-VOC coating system, from pretreatment to liquid, powder
and e-coat.

“Powder coatings are inherently low-VOC because they are
solvent-free and, while most e-coats contain some small amount
of co-solvent, modern use of this technology produces few, if
any, VOC emissions,” said PPG’s spokesperson. “As for liquid
coatings, PPG continues to invest in developing waterborne and
ultra-high-solid formulations for low-VOC emissions because
of the advantages liquid coatings offer in color, substrate flex-
ibility and energy consumption.”
There is a general trend toward low-VOC in virtually all coat-
ings market segments. “Typically, the automotive market has led,
but we’re seeing a focused effort on increasing the use of low-VOC
coatings in Asia, particularly in China, where there is a growing
emphasis on environmental protection,” said PPG’s spokesperson.
Benjamin Moore said it is finding consumers looking
for greener products for their homes and families, in ad-
dition to low- and zero-VOC paints being speced for new
green buildings. “Innovation has always been a key strat-
egy for Benjamin Moore,” said Bennett. “We continue to
find new greener and improved processes for manufactur-
ing our products.

“Many of our customers in VOC regulated regions seek these low- and zero-VOC coating solutions, but many seek out these finishes as well to show their commitment to the environment to their customers, as well as offering their finishing employees a better workplace environment,” said Bartoszek. “We are finding that many of our solutions to meet the VOC restrictions also improve quality and/or improve productivity, so the customer really gives nothing up by choosing an environmentally friendly solution. Typically, lower VOC liquid products usually mean higher solids; that will usually lead to more film per pass and could translate into process savings.”