Sources in the Paint and Coatings Industry

By Cynthia Challener

“Water-based coatings have almost completely supplanted solvent-based formulations, leading to a decrease in environmental impact without sacrific- ing product performance,” BYK’s Burge says. “New regulations related to the elimination of perfluorocarbon containing materials or CMR (carcinogenic, muta­genic or toxic for reproduction) substances are, meanwhile, likely to lead to significant innovations in the coming years.” Regulatory shifts, label requirements, and supply constraints have created the need for more innovation in raw mate­rials as formulators seek new solutions, says Julie Vaughn Biege, global business development director, industrial special­ties, for Emerald Kalama Chemical. “At the same time, consumers are unwilling to compromise on performance and economy,” Biege adds. “Manufacturers are challenged to fulfill all of these needs at once, and much of the recent innova­tion in the industry is looking to bridge these gaps.” The regulatory environment is also becoming more complex with more glob­ally linked supply chains as the industry consolidates, according to Du main. “Technology ‘pushes’ to the market have become more focused and less frequent, because a constraint in one of these areas creates less space for successful innova­tion at scale, In addition, with end-users having more concentrated power in most markets, more sophisticated market research and customized customer or market solutions have resulted,” he says.