through other intermediaries,” he said.
BASF’s Saloua Hebchane-Es-Sayafi
was among the 11 presenters at the
Congress where she took delegates
through the company’s formulation ad-
ditives, which she said are now more
than ever before dictated by the “lat-
est and most stringent environmental
regulations.”
“BASF Formulation Additives pro-
duce defoamers to eliminate undesired
foam and (micro-) air bubbles from
paints and coatings,” she said.
She said: “A good defoamer active
should be insoluble in the medium for a
long time to ensure the long term effec-
tiveness of the defoamer droplets, have
low surface tension in order to be able
enter the air/liquid interface and also
have capacity to spread at the air/liquid
interface in order to weaken the foam sta-
bilizing surfactant layer.”
Hebchane-Es-Sayafi said the market
for sustainable formulations is driven
mainly by demand for resource efficiency,
Michel Diels, industry specialist at the
Netherlands-based Synres BV, an inde-
pendent producer of solventborne resins
for decorative, industrial wood, protec-
tive/marine and vehicle refinishes, told
delegates that a recent study by the com-
pany shows increasing demand for sol-
ventborne direct to metal (DTM) coatings
for the agriculture, construction, earth-
moving (and transportation) equipment
(ACET) segment “to increase productiv-
ity and thus cost efficiency.”
The solventborne DTM coatings avail-
able in the global market today, he said,
have failed to meet the needs of ACET us-
ers because the products “lack in corro-
sion and humidity resistance.”
He said the global market for solvent-
borne DTM coatings is currently being
driven by the demand for high perfor-
mance solutions that offer characteris-
tics such as corrosion resistance, enable
multiple application methods (airless, air-
mix), make it possible for different drying
methods (air drying, stoving for 20 min-
utes@ 60°C), enable long pot life/open
time and short drying time, use of same
technology for new build and refinish, in-
creasing use of different object parts on
equipment which require different gloss
and corrosion resistance and the multi-
surface nature of the equipment such as
cold/hot rolled steel, galvanised steel, alu-
minium and plastic.
The market is also getting influenced
by regulatory compliance such as those
for volatile organic compounds (VOC)
and Dibutyltin dilaurate (DBTL), a catalyst used to accelerate the curing reaction
of polyurethanes.
Diels said coatings users in ACET sector are keen on DTM solvents that boost
productivity through reduction of drying
time and stoving temperature.
The Congress presentations delved deep
into how technology and discovery of new
raw material qualities are boosting the coatings industry achieve the highest quality at a
low cost and convenience to customers. CW
