By George R. Pilcher, The ChemQuest Group, Inc.

What is on the horizon for powder coatings? This is an important question today as evolving technology in this area explores ways to improve durability, achieve low-temperature cure, and other advancements.

One of the world’s foremost experts in powder coatings is Kevin Biller, a.k.a. “Joe Powder,” who has worked in this arena for more than 40 years. In this article, we interview him about the future of powder coatings.

Biller recently joined The ChemQuest Group, Inc., as ChemQuest acquired the Powder Coatings Research Group, which Biller founded in 2007 and led until the acquisition in 2021.

He has been in the powder coating world since his college days—his first job was as a laboratory technician at the Glidden Dwight P. Joyce Research Center in Strongsville, Ohio. Here, Biller learned powder coating technology from the ground up, since Glidden was teeming with an abundance of distinguished industry experts spanning the disciplines of formulation, resin design, polymer synthesis, chemo-rheology, process engineering, and polymer physics.

After a decade or so of start-and-stop activity in the late 1960s into the 1970s, during which powder coatings were largely considered to be a curiosity used to coat novelty applications, they began to come into their own in the late 1970s. Powder coating technology was on the brink of vaulting into areas that were hitherto either unpainted, laminated, painted with liquids, or finished with porcelain enamel. These included major appliances; heating, ventilation and air conditioning units; transformers; automotive parts; and many other applications.

Glidden was sold to ICI in the mid-1980s, and Biller relocated to England to facilitate technology interchange between ICI’s European powder counterparts and Glidden. The ICI powder division was later sold to Ferro, and Biller moved on to Herbert’s Powder Coatings.

After a four-year stint at Herbert’s, he became an industry consultant helping industrial paint makers enter this burgeoning field. This led to building, then running, a start-up powder manufacturer (Wabash), purchasing and eventually reselling another powder manufacturer (IRIS/Jamestown), and a stint as the editor of an industry magazine (Industrial Paint & Powder/Finishing Today).

It was during this period that Kevin began answering questions about powder coatings that were received by his then-employer, Jamestown Powder Coatings, in its bi-monthly company newsletter. The original concept for the column was to be called”Ask Kevin,” but Kevin suggested that it might be more effective to have questions answered in a column, headed by a friendly, generic appellative, hence, “Ask Joe Powder” was created.

When Kevin departed Jamestown, he trademarked the moniker, “Joe Powder,” and has answered questions from all over the globe under the aegis of this column heading ever since. The column today appears on the ChemQuest Powder Coating Research Group website at www.powdercoatingresearch.com. A monthly conversational “powdcast,” discussing industry events and answering listener questions, is also widely disseminated.

My interview with Biller follows:

PILCHER: What is the single most important development-in-the-making that you consider to be on the horizon in the world of powder coatings?

BILLER: “Hyperdurability” is a major current topic in the architectural area. Required by multiple global performance standards, most notably AAMA 2605 and Qualicoat Class III, the highest level of exterior, UV-resistant coating performance has traditionally been met via the use of poly(vinylidene)difluoride (PVDF) resins for building panels and painted extruded metal used in the construction industry.

This has historically been an “obstacle to overcome” for the powder coatings industry, because PVDF is extremely di§cult to handle in powder form and requires conditions “just this side of cryogenic grinding” to be useful as a resin for high-durability powder coatings.

On the other hand, exceptionally durable powder coatings based upon fluoroethylene vinyl ether (FEVE) resin, are very user-friendly in the powder coatings manufacturing process, and have been making significant headway into increasingly higher-durability product areas. Acceptance of FEVE-based powder coatings for extruded metal and building panels has, however, had an uphill battle, especially given the entrenched position of liquid paints based on PVDF, with its longer history of proven performance, and abundance of older installations that testify to its excellent durability.

Nevertheless, FEVE-based powders are definitely coming into their own, benefiting from significant work performed by both smaller powder coating producers and also by larger global paint companies. Momentum is accelerating as architects are realizing that “powder adds points (LEED, Green Seal, et al.) to the bidding process.” We can expect to see significant growth during the next five years.

PILCHER: What other trends and technologies do you believe are gathering momentum?

BILLER: The desire for low-temperature cure has been around almost since the beginning of powder, and the first UV-curing powders were developed and commercialized in the 1990s by Herberts Powder Coatings and Morton Powder Coatings. However, as the turn of the century approached, R&D spending by the larger companies took a decidedly different direction. Spending decreased and much of it, in both resources and funding, was redirected to operations in the Asia-Pacific region.

Nevertheless, smaller entrepreneurial formulators such as Alpha Coatings Technologies (part of PPG since early 2020), Keyland Polymer, and applicators like Keyland’s sister company, DVUV, kept the vision alive. These pioneers recognized the solid advantages of being able to apply powder coatings, and cure them at low temperatures, to a broad array of materials such as MDF, engineered wood, composites, and certain plastics.

The technology has advanced to the point where we can talk about it in terms other than hypothetical products and niche applications. We are seeing increasing activity by larger powder coatings producers. This is good news as their marketing and distribution channels will help power future acceptance and commercialization in low-temperature-cure powder coatings.

PILCHER: While tossing and turning at night, many people dream about problems, opportunities, and possibilities, often associated with their professions. As a global thought leader in the area of powder coatings, what do you dream about? What do you feel is possible in the future with powder coatings that cannot be accomplished today—and why do you feel that way?

BILLER: Powder coatings are a unique technology with a unique history, created in large part by unique individuals—the term “characters” has always seemed appropriate. The concept of powder coating was developed by outsiders in the finishing industry; “dreamers” you might say. Those of us who have been drawn by its allure are a special breed, and we have created a hub of non-conformity in a relatively conservative field. We strive to create the next generation of technology and have fun while doing it.

“Part of the ongoing success of powder coatings will involve thinking outside the box of premixing/extrusion/grinding and sieving.”

I see a world of heat-sensitive substrates waiting to be finished with history’s most ecologically friendly—yet highly durable—coating technology. Energies must be directed to material technology as well as processing options and engineering design. Success will require an integration of material scientists, formulating chemists, process engineers and clever managers.

Part of the ongoing success of powder coatings will involve thinking outside the box of premixing/extrusion/grinding and sieving. Battelle, for example, recently developed a bio-based polyester-amide resin with carboxyl functionality that cures at low temperatures with triglycidyl isocyanurate (TGIC). We did extensive work with it and found that it exhibits excellent UV resistance in accelerated exposure testing (4000 hrs. QUV-B). The industry has yet to embrace it, however.

Novel ways to generate fully functional, fully formulated particles will open new doors of applications. Particle-size control could be a significantly enhanced when venturing beyond the inelegant process of comminution via hammering.

My foremost dream is to hand the creative baton over to the next generation of technologists. Every generation has a smattering of clever, quirky tinkerers who love to be told, “It can’t be done.” It is to them that I extend my undying support and encouragement.

My advice to them is, “Look beyond convention. Talk with people that do not make powder coatings. Talk with dreamers outside the fairly tight circles within the coatings industry. Find the entrepreneurial scientists who have a solution looking for a problem. Integrate their creations into realistic needs of the evolving finishing industry. Connect the dots.”

My guess is that this will be done by individuals who are “hungry.” Hungry for knowledge, hungry for challenges, hungry for achievement, hungry for recognition. Hungry to be the glue that cements the advanced material technologist to the practical formulator, the process engineer, and the fabrication expert. Individuals who will be relentless until the coin drops or the money runs out.

George R. Pilcher is vice president at The ChemQuest Group, Inc.; email him at gpilcher@chemquest.com.