Innovative for Urbanization
4. Industrial paints
4.INDUSTRIAL PAINTS
COMBINING DURABILITY
AND LOW VOC EMISSIONS
A major player in industrial coatings in many markets, Arkema is developing its product portfolios to ensure they meet high demands for competitiveness, durability and lower energy consumption, and to anticipate regulatory changes on VOCs (volatile organic compound) emissions.
Cars, boats, metal structures and civil engineering, industrial timber, building and farm machinery... In all these applications and more, coatings (paints and lacquers) play an essential role in protecting materials (metal, concrete, wood) and require a wide range of technical solutions and application procedures. Arkema is one of the world’s leading players in this field, with its extensive offering of acrylic, alkyd and polyester resins, and production sites across four continents. “In these highly competitive markets, durability and industrial efficacy are the key factors in performance,” explains Claire Reynier, Global Marketing & Business Development, Industrial Coatings at Arkema.
Reducing volumes purchased, transported and used
An underlying trend, to which the Group is making a major contribution, consists of altering formulations to reduce VOCs, improve the performance of coatings and reduce quantities transported. “By increasing the ‘solid’ proportion of the dry ingredients that make up a paint, for example, often to well above the market standard of 65%, we reduce the volumes we need to transport and therefore the associated energy costs,” continues Claire Reynier. As well as resins with high levels of dry extracts, Arkema operates and actively develops technologies for VOC-free industrial paints and varnishes such as aqueous solutions, photocure varnishes and powder paints (100% solid). To this end, in 2019, the Group invested in the expansion of photocure resin capacity at the Nansha unit in China, as well as a new powder resin plant in Navi Mumbai, India, two technologies achieving estimated worldwide growth of 5% to 7%.