Acmite Market Intelligence, Ratingen,
Germany, reckons that in the period
2010-2018 acrylics powder coatings will
show a compound annual growth rate
of 6. 6 percent against a world average
of 6. 7 percent, one percentage point below that in the Asia Pacific, the fastest
growth region.
AkzoNobel, the global market leader
in powder coatings, reported that although its worldwide powder coatings
sales last year declined by 2 percent,
they actually went up in volume terms
in Europe.
Powder coatings are gaining greater prominence in industrial coatings
shows in Europe, like PaintExpo, a
leading international industrial coatings event whose latest biennial exhibition took place at Karlsruhe, Germany,
in April (2014).
Numbers of the show’s exhibitors,
a large share of them powder coatings producers or application equipment
manufacturers, went up by 14 percent to
470 while numbers of visitors rose by the
same proportion to 9,170.
“At PaintExpo it was apparent that
the powder coatings sector is growing
again,” said Juergen Haussmann, man-
aging director of the event’s promoter
FairFair GmbH. “One reason is the en-
vironmental friendliness of powder coat-
ings. They don’t contain VOCs and due to
the expected tightening of the European
Union’s VOC regulations, some compa-
nies are considering changing from wet
painting to powder coating because they
can be sure of working in compliance
with environmental regulations.”
At the same time companies in the
metalworking industry are seeking to ex-
pand their portfolios by investing in pow-
der coating equipment.
“On the one hand this enables them to
become independent from job-shop coaters and their delivery times, while on the
other they’ll have a greater influence on
quality and can react faster to demand,”
explained Haussmann.
Awareness of the existence of powder coatings among potential end-users
has now extended to knowledge of their
properties and advantages.
“They understand what gives powder
coatings qualities like greater resistance
and more colour intensity,” said Markus
Koenigs, marketing communications
manager for Europe, Middle East and
Africa (MENA) at Axalta Coatings
Systems Germany GmbH, Cologne.
“They also know now that powder coat-
ings can be combined with other types of
coatings, like electrodeposition and liquid
systems. But to gain this level of under-
standing among end-users, powder coat-
ing producers have to work closely with
the equipment manufacturers.”
Powder coatings have also been able
to gain market share in Europe as a result
of innovations which raise their resource
and energy efficiency.
“There has been quite a demand for
low temperature powder coatings and
less and thinner layers,” said Haussmann.
“(These include) for example ultra-thin
powder coatings which can provide an
optimum coverage with film thicknesses
from up to 25 microns—depending on
the color.”
AkzoNobel has been the latest among
major powder coatings producers to in-
troduce a two-coat powder system which
does not need two cures, one after the
primer and the other after the application
of the top coat. Instead the two layers are
cured simultaneously.
“This results in significantly improved
productivity, as well as energy and cost
savings,” said John Wolff, managing director AkzoNobel Powder Coatings.
As two-coat one-bake systems become more widely available at operating temperatures of 160-180 C degrees
or even lower, their providers are
having to differentiate them through
specific formulations and ways of applying them, particularly in the use of
tribotechnology to control the interaction between surfaces.
“We use standard raw materials for
our two-coat, one-bake powder coat-
ing but the formulation is different and
we pay a lot of attention to particle
size,” explained Jochen Reihs, techni-
cal services manager for construction
vehicles at Karl Woerwag GmbH & Co.
Renningen, Germany. “ Also the meth-
od of application is important with
thinner powder coatings.”
Some powder coatings companies
are, however, treading carefully with
the development of technologies with
low temperatures or reduced energy
consumption.
“It is not easy to maintain or improve
quality at temperatures below 200 de-
grees,” said Koenigs at Axalta, previously
DuPont Performance Coatings until its
acquisition early last year by The Carlyle
Group equity fund. “We are working on a
low temperature technology. But we want
to get it absolutely right first.”
The innovations in powder coatings
have been opening up new segments in
the market, traditionally dominated by
liquid coatings.
“The current economic upturn in
Europe is increasing investment in
new projects for which companies are
thinking of replacing conventional liq-
uid coatings with powder coatings,”
said Karl Pint, commercial direc-
tor at Protech-Oxyplast N.V., Gent-
Mendonk, Belgium. “Low-temperature
and other new technologies are giving
us opportunities to move into new
markets like medium-density fibre-
board (MDF), plastic components and
big machine parts.”
The continued expansion of the pow-
der coatings sector in Europe will de-
pend a lot on the inventiveness of not
only the powder coatings producers but
also that of the manufacturers of applica-
tion, curing and other equipment. CW
“A lot of the
increased sales
in Europe has
been triggered
by environmental
regulations like
controls of emissions
of VOCs ... ”
