Horgen, Switzerland - October 08, 2010
Senior technical experts and business leaders from Dow Coating Materials will present two timely technical papers at the PRA 7th International Woodcoatings Congress, held at the Mercure Hotel Amsterdam Aan de Amstel (NL) on 12-13 October 2010. With the theme of this year's event on reducing the environmental impact of coatings and treatments for interior and exterior wood applications, Dow Coating Materials - the largest global supplier of raw materials for the coatings industry - will be taking participants through two distinct technologies, which enable environmentally advanced wood coatings for industrial and architectural application.
Breakthrough approach for lowering VOC in industrial coatings
As the industrial wood coatings market responds to increased governmental regulation, as well as consumer demand for end products and manufacturing processes with an improved environmental profile, coatings manufacturers continue to seek new ways of reducing hazardous air pollutants and volatile organic compounds (VOC). Dow Coating Materials - which introduced water-based coating ingredients to the market nearly 50 years ago - has developed a new one-component waterborne technology which lowers VOC content, therefore contributing to a reduction in the level of VOC emission of the manufactured wood products. The result of this unique combination of acrylic latex and polyurethane dispersion polymers will be examined in the paper "Accelerating the Release of Volatile Organic Content from Industrial Wood Coatings Using a Novel Acrylic/Urethane Hybrid Technology", which will be presented on 12 October 2010 by Jérome Caron, development leader, European industrial wood products, Dow Coating Materials. The faster coalescent release of volatile materials prior to the packaging and use of the wood/coated material can lead to better indoor air quality for the consumer and, in turn, a competitive business advantage for the manufacturers of furniture, cabinets and building materials.
Guillaume Reverchon, marketing director for Dow Coating Materials, EMEA, explains, "We believe that this acrylic/urethane hybrid technology represents a major step forward in developing environmentally advanced coatings, because it not only addresses VOC content, but help to control where and when the VOCs are released. What that means is the potential for an improved quality of life, for the wood manufacturer and end-consumer alike."
The technical paper will also compare this innovation to other commercial solvent-borne and waterborne industrial wood coatings, and report on improved performance in essential properties, such as hardness, block, print and mar resistance.
Improved durability crucial to sustainability
Also speaking at the PRA conference, Dow Coating Materials technical director Andrew Trapani will explore the essential role that durability plays in the aim of delivering sustainable architectural coatings. In "The Impact of Durability on Formulating More Environmentally Advanced Architectural Paints for Wooden Substrates", Trapani will present the results of Life Cycle Analysis for low-VOC pure acrylic and acrylic hybrid binder technologies. With their improved environmental profile and carbon footprint over the total lifecycle (relative to other market references), the binders facilitate less frequent repainting - and, in turn, require a lower use of resources and energy over the lifecycle of the applied paint film.
Trapani believes that durability is often overlooked when aiming at sustainable coatings processes and products. "We are convinced, based on scientific evidence and years of experience, that reaching sustainability goals for coatings requires a multi-faceted approach. While we continuously aim for lower VOC content and explore the use of more renewable raw materials, we also need to address the long-term effects of a given technology. This is where we have a great opportunity to improve the durability of our products."
For more about the conference program, please click here.
About Dow
About Dow Coating Materials
Dow Coating Materials is the premier supplier of products and technologies to architectural and industrial coatings manufacturers worldwide. Combining the extensive resources of Dow and recently-acquired Rohm and Haas Company, the new business provides formulators a wide range of chemistries and support across many different product lines, including core binder technologies, additives and solvents. Additionally, Dow Coating Materials operates 13 dedicated R&D labs across all major geographies where Dow does business. For more information, visit us @ http://www.dow.com/coating.
For Editorial Information:
Rachel Redshaw
Dow Coating Materials
+441829770353