Benjamin Moore
Awarded 2014
Highest Ranked
Interior Paint Fourth
Year in a Row By J.D.
Power
Benjamin Moore has been ranked highest
in interior paint customer satisfaction by
J.D. Power in 2014 for the fifth time and
the fourth year in a row. According to the
2014 Paint Satisfaction Study, Benjamin
Moore maintained its highest ranked position over all other interior paint brands
with a score of 815 on a 1,000 point
scale, which is a 15-point increase from
2013, and performing particularly well
in the key areas: application, durability,
product offerings and design guides.
“Benjamin Moore is thrilled to once
again receive this prestigious award of
Highest Ranked Interior Paint by J.D.
Power,” said Mike Searles, president
and CEO of Benjamin Moore & Co.
“Customer satisfaction, brand loyalty
and delivering best in class products
are the hallmark of Benjamin Moore.
We’re constantly focused on meeting
the needs of the most discerning cus-
tomers and contractors with a suite of
interior products and colors that can
only be delivered through our network
of independent dealers.”
J.D. Power bases satisfaction with
paint brands by evaluations from cus-
tomers who purchased and applied interi-
or paint during the past year. It measures
six key factors: application, product of-
ferings, durability, price, design guides,
and warranty/guarantee. In addition to
paint brands, J.D. Power also ranks paint
retailers across five key factors: facility,
merchandise, staff, services provided, and
sales/promotions.
The 2014 Paint Satisfaction Study
is based on responses from more than
8,690 customers who purchased and applied interior and/or exterior paint within
the previous 12 months. The study was
fielded in January through March 2014.
New Technique Safely
Penetrates Top Coat
Researchers have developed a new way
to measure the thickness of paint layers
and the size of particles embedded inside.
Unlike conventional methods, the paint
remains undamaged, making the technique useful for a variety of applications
from cars to artifacts, cancer detection
and more. The researchers will describe
their work at CLEO: 2014 being held
June 8-13 in San Jose, California.
“It’s a problem that’s quite chal-
lenging,” said Anis Rahman, founder of
Applied Research and Photonics, Inc.,
in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. “None of
the current methods are very successful
in determining the thickness of individ-
ual layers and coatings in a nondestruc-
tive fashion.”
The new technique, which was de-
veloped by Rahman and his son, Aunik,
uses terahertz reflectometry, in which a
beam of terahertz-frequency radiation is
fired onto the paint. Terahertz radiation,
which has frequencies between infrared
and microwave radiation, is nonionizing
and therefore harmless, Rahman said.
The terahertz beam penetrates the
paint layers, which are each tens of
microns (millionths of a meter) thick and
bounces back at different intensities of
light depending on the thickness of each
layer of material the beam encounters.
Measuring the intensities of the reflected
beams reveals the thickness of each coat
of paint down to a precision of tens of
nanometers, almost a million times nar-
rower than the head of a pin. This meth-
od can also be used to estimate the size of
any particles added to the paint as small
as 25 nanometers.
In addition to quality control, the
method would be useful for testing paints
as well, Rahman said. For example, in or-
der for an overcoat on a car to protect the
paint underneath, the two layers have to
remain separate. Terahertz reflectometry
can be used to make sure that the over-
coat does not penetrate the layers below.
The method can also help companies an-
alyze how their paints react with different
surfaces, such as plastic, wood or metal.
Environmental health applications
are also possible, Rahman said, since the
method can help detect whether old paint
contains lead. Archaeologists and art historians can even employ it to analyze the
paint on artifacts.
But terahertz reflectometry is useful
for more than analyzing paint, Rahman
added. The researchers are now configuring their techniques to analyze the structure of skin as a way to help diagnose
early stages of skin cancer such as melanoma and basal cell carcinoma. With the
addition of spectroscopy to measure the
different wavelengths of reflected beams,
this technique can be used to analyze the
structure of skin layers and determine if
