Paint and coatings formulators face pressures from every corner: increasing customer demands for high-performance surface protection, tighter environmental regulation, as well as a need to speed production time, drive innovation, and deliver new products – all while containing costs.
Despite these growing demands, the formulation process looks a lot like it did 30 years ago, with spreadsheets, notebooks, and time-consuming rounds of hands-on testing. The endeavor can span weeks – or even months – and involve hundreds of test samples made from dozens of resins, additives, pigments, and catalysts in seemingly infinite combinations.