Dow Coating Materials (DCM) recently invited PCI’s Editors and Publisher to attend a private tour of its R&D labs in Midland, MI, to learn about products in development in the industrial coatings arena. Hosted by Chuck Martz, Global Business Director, Industrial Coatings, and Bob Mussell, R&D Director, Industrial and Functional Coatings, we were introduced to a world that not many in our industry have the privilege to experience. “We were thrilled to have a chance to give PCI Magazine a sneak peak at some of our new chemistries in the pipeline for industrial coatings, as well as new applications in the field,” said Martz.
First off was a unique process called BLUEWAVE™ technology. BLUEWAVE is Dow’s proprietary and patented mechanical-dispersion technology that was developed in Dow Chemical’s unique Core Research and Development organization. Core R&D was designed to provide leveraged research and development capabilities to all Dow businesses. The organization consists of about 1000 people across many different disciplines. All of Dow’s businesses can leverage this resource to develop technology and projects. “Even though we already have a large R&D organization within Dow Coating Materials, we can utilize the efforts of the Core R&D group to bring new technology in,” said Mussell.