compared to a global increase of
just six percent during same period. As the ranks of Asia’s middle
class continue to swell, consumer
demand for mobility and communications
technology will increase, while consumers
will also expect greater levels of sustainability and efficiency. These Asian market megatrends will drive the evolution
of lighting technology in four key areas:
Residential Buildings; Medical Diagnostics
and Treatments, Outdoor Applications
and Transportation.
GreenWizard and Valspar
Announce Emerald
Partnership
GreenWizard Inc., a leading product
management platform for transparency
in building product data and documentation, and Valspar, a leading global
coatings manufacturer, announced the
beginning of their Emerald Partnership
that will help architects and designers achieve building performance and
sustainability requirements. This new
Emerald Partnership strengthens both
companies’ shared vision and commitment to product responsibility. This is the
third Emerald Partnership since the program launched, profiling the collaborative efforts of leaders in the industry.
With GreenWizard being the conduit
for responsible product attributes related
to building performance and sustainability to the design and construction community, and Valspar supporting these efforts,
great things are expected to come from
this partnership.
National Paint Industries
Purchases General Coatings
Technologies
National Paint Industries of North
Brunswick, New Jersy has acquired
General Coatings Technologies located
Brooklyn, New York. General Coatings
is a manufacturer of paints and coatings
serving the architectural and commercial
maintenance market. General Coatings
was established in 1946 and has built a
reputation for premium quality coatings
under the Pentagon, Eaglo, F.O Pierce,
and Dutch Master brand names.
“We are thrilled to now have General
Coatings as part of our company. It will
add complimentary products along
with an outstanding long established
customer base to our existing portfolio.
Together with our specialty products
such as clear wood finishes, marine,
pool, silicone, urethane and epoxy
paints, our dealers will now have avail-
able a product line unmatched in the in-
dustry. We are also excited to carry on
the General Coatings - Pentagon name,
which dates back to 1946 as a coat-
ings manufacturer,” said Mike & Don
Schnurr of National Paint Industries.
Many individuals from General
Coatings will be joining National in the
areas of sales, manufacturing and customer service. “We are very happy that
General Coatings is joining National who
has done an outstanding job of continued
sales growth in many different areas of
the coatings industry. Our customers will
be well served under their leadership as
we share the same family company values for quality and customer service” said
Michael and Robert Ghitelman, owners
of General Coatings.
350 Full Vessel
Coatings Achieved with
HEMPAGUARD Antifouling
Product
Two years after its launch Hempel has
announced that its antifouling product
HEMPAGUARD has now been applied as
a full vessel coating to more than 350 ships.
HEMPAGUARD was launched two
years ago during London International
Shipping Week 2013 after a five-year development programme, and is Hempel’s
first product to use its proprietary
ActiGuard technology that integrates sil-icone-hydrogel and full diffusion control
of biocides in a single coating. So confident is Hempel of its performance that
the company offers the industry’s first
performance satisfaction guarantee.
To date, feedback from customers
confirms that their vessels have remained
significantly cleaner, and for longer, than
they’ve experienced with any other anti-fouling product.
The coating was introduced to the
shipping industry against a backdrop of
rising bunkering costs, tightening envi-
ronmental regulations and the introduc-
tion of mandatory Ship Energy Efficiency
Management Plans (SEEMP). In October
2014, HEMPAGUARD, won Shipping
Efficiency’s prestigious Environmental
Technology award for making “a signifi-
cant contribution to environmental im-
pact reduction or prevention to ships.”
H.B. Fuller Adhesive
Academy to Accelerate
Customer Innovation
H.B. Fuller has officially opened
its Lüneburg Adhesive Academy in
Germany, the company’s newest technical
centre of excellence, to help its customers respond more quickly and effectively
to market trends, industry challenges and
opportunities.
Combining state-of-the-art equipment
with the collective knowledge of experts
drawn from H.B. Fuller’s global network,
this facility will be a focus for adhesive
R&D excellence. Drawing on specialist knowledge from different industry
sectors, the academy provides an environment to work in partnership with customers to solve problems, and create new
solutions, more rapidly than ever before.
“Our new adhesive academy is a per-
fect example of what we mean by ‘con-
necting what matters.’ It brings together
everything necessary to connect custom-
ers to innovative adhesive solutions that
will give them a competitive edge,” said
H.B. Fuller’s president and CEO, Jim
Owens. “From the academy, we will
strengthen our commercial partnerships,
solve some of the world’s toughest ad-
hesion challenges and develop market-
ready solutions to help drive customer
and industry performance.”
Nick Lehman, R&D director, added,
“By bringing together adhesive specialists
from different sectors to share expertise,
transfer technologies between markets
and stimulate ideas, we are confident
we can accelerate adhesive innovation.
Furthermore, we are providing those ex-
perts with first-class offices, laboratories,
technical facilities and machinery to en-
sure they have the best possible environ-
ment in which to think and to create.”
Covering 2,300 square meters, the
