Paints and Coatings Industries: Trends, Innovation and New Technologies

We are on the eve of a new industrial revolution, known as Industry 4.0, driven by digital, smart and environmentally conscious technologies. In today's times of rapid technological developments, you can find the prominent trends, innovation and technologies below. Let us examine together what these concepts mean, first and foremost.

What is a Trend?

Don't we use this word frequently in our daily lives? Fashion trends, economic trends, political trends… A trend is nothing other than the English version of a word that means "tendency" in Turkish! In other words, words and concepts that show the recent direction or orientation in industry or another field… However, since the English word "trend" is more commonly used both in industry and economics, the term "trend" will be used in this article instead of the Turkish "eğilim". Before examining new technologies, it will be extremely beneficial to look at trends, which we can also regard as the starting point for these technologies:

Paints and Coatings Industries - Trends

• The desire to accomplish more work with fewer labour resources. • Strong demand for longer-lasting paint/coating systems that require less maintenance and repair. • Thinner total paint film thicknesses and fewer paint layers within the paint/coating system. • Green Chemistry / Industry: International environmental regulations and, as a result, the need for chemicals that cause less harm to the atmosphere, nature, living organisms and our environment. • Globalisation and people's need for more effective communication. • Urbanisation and the necessary requirements to improve living quality associated with it. • The 4th Industrial Revolution referred to as Industry 4.0 and its associated needs: Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, Cloud Computing, Sensors, Cyber-Physical Systems and Robotic Technologies.

What is Innovation?

If you wanted to summarise this word, which has a foreign origin, in a single sentence, how would you do it? The explanation below, I believe, will be sufficient for us to understand the subject simply: "The implementation of 'innovations' developed in response to changing conditions and our growing needs in social, economic or industrial areas…" Innovation—whether we are aware of it or not—has become an integral part of our daily lives! Because it is a well-known fact that individuals, institutions and countries that do not use this concept have fallen behind in the civilisation race of the 21st century and economically deteriorate. (In this regard, you can read books published on innovation, as well as examine OECD's reports under the "Innovation" heading covering the 2000s.) As a result, thanks to innovations, the technologies of the age we live in are changing at a great pace and shaping our future!

What is Technology?

We all use this term frequently in our daily lives as well. But if someone simply asked for a simple definition of this, what would we say? Let us listen to Dr. Rüştü Bozkurt, a Turkish management guru and respected economist journalist, for this definition: "Technology is what man accomplishes using his mind—with tools and methods—that he cannot do with his naked strength." When we say new technology, we are referring to technologies that have been developed over the past 15-20 years in different continents and countries of the world, such as the USA, Asia, Australia and Europe in the Paints and Coatings Industry, but which either have not yet found any application in developing countries like ours or are only now appearing before us.

How Can These Developments in the Paints and Coatings Industry Generally Be Classified?

To make the article easier to read and follow, we can classify the Paints and Coatings Industry in the table on the next page. Now, let us examine these technologies one by one:

Paints and Coatings Industries - New Technologies

Let us begin to discuss New Technologies around the 4 main headings by which we previously classified the industry: The two most important steps in a paint and coating project are Surface Preparation and Paint/Coating application steps. Below are some of the new technologies that have emerged in recent years around the chemical substances used in both steps.

1.1. Materials Used for Surface Preparation

Surface cleaning chemicals traditionally used in industry are solvent or alcohol-based chemicals. However, in place of these, natural-based and solvent/alcohol-free chemical substances in powder, liquid or gel form are being developed to provide the same or similar surface cleaning performance. As a result of these efforts, chemical substances free of the aforementioned chemicals in powder or gel-based form are receiving awards from various professional organisations. One of the surface preparation methods is the method known as abrasive blasting. In general, substances used during this surface preparation operation are called abrasives. These are small, hard, angular metallic or plastic substances. In recent years, due to proof that some environmental and health-related issues have been caused by these metallic or plastic substances, natural or manufactured substances that dissolve in nature are being put forward as candidates to replace metallic or plastic abrasives, similar to the surface cleaning chemicals mentioned above. Examples include agricultural products prepared by grinding and filtering thoroughly, such as walnut/hazelnut shells or corn cobs, or specially manufactured mineral-based abrasives such as Garnet, Olivine or Staurolite.

1.2 Paint/Coating Chemical Technologies

In this sector, for the reasons mentioned in the trends section above, innovative raw materials and chemical end products with the following new technologies have been launched on the market in recent years: It is worth mentioning some of the recent technological advances in chemical raw materials—such as binders, pigments, solvents, resins and other additives—which are the building blocks of the end products that will be discussed below. The prominent areas of progress are: • Polymeric Binders with higher molecular bond structure. • Multi-function pigments and additives. • Innovative production methods (such as Nanotechnology and Sol-gel). • Green technology solvents produced through biochemical methods that cause less harm to nature and do not contain petroleum products.

1.2.1 Biofunctional Paints and Coatings

Due to the trend of using chemicals that are less harmful to the environment mentioned above; paint/coating technologies whose structural chemicals such as Epoxy and Polyurethane are based on petrochemical products have begun to use bio-based chemicals instead of petroleum-based chemicals used in their formulations. For example, in developing water-based polyurethane technologies, bio-based equivalent chemicals are being substituted instead of petroleum-based polyols in their formulations. The ultimate goal here is to convert paint/coating end products into bio-functional based paint/coating products without losing the performance of paint/coating end products.

Biofunctional paints are increasing in popularity due to environmental trends.

1.2.2 Smart Paints and Coatings

New technology paints and coatings in this class are referred to as SMART because they are able to react to changes in their environment and produce useful results. Smart paints/coatings must be able to respond to their environment and have unexpected signs of intelligence. For example, Hygienic Paints/Coatings that can absorb when encountering microbes or bacteria, or Photovoltaic paints and coatings that can change colour when temperature rises, can self-heal when damaged, can self-clean when soiled, and can generate energy when exposed to sunlight. In the section of this article that will appear on the next page, we will address the topic of hybrid paints/coatings. We will examine new formulations that have recently become popular in innovative polysiloxane paint/coating technology, such as silicones and epoxies.   Tolga Dıraz, PCS Chemical Engineer / Protective Paints and Coatings Specialist Chair, TUCSA TK-4 Surface Protection Committee    

References 1. Corrosion Prevention by Protective Coatings – Charles G. Munger & Louis D. Vincent – NACE International 2. The Protective Coating User's Handbook – Louis D. Vincent 3. BASF Coatings' Global Trend Book - BASF's Coatings division 4. Selecting Coatings for Industrial and Marine Structures – SSPC publications 5. ASM Handbook, Volume 5B: Protective Organic Coatings 6. Paint and Surface Coatings –Theory and Practice- R Lambourne T A Strivens – Woodhead Publishing 7. https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/trend 8. http://www.turkceanlaminedir.com/trend-62082 9. https://www.coatingsworld.com/knowledge-center/coatings- markets-amp-technologies/market-trends-amp-forecast 10. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/innovation