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Plasma pre-treatment is a crucial step for improving the quality and durability of automotive assemblies and components. It enhances the adhesion and compatibility of different materials that are used for encapsulation, printing, or painting processes. By applying plasma to the surface of low-energy materials, it removes contaminants and creates functional groups that increase the surface energy and reactivity.

Simon Wagenaar, Manager of the Technical Services department for coatings at Ulamo Coating BV, noted that the contamination of the cleaning liquids was costing thousands of Euros for personnel, lost sales, and scrap parts. This article explains the company's search for cleaning centrifuges that offered savings and sustainability benefits.

The mining industry has long been an important sector of the global economy, providing the raw materials necessary for various products, from electronics to infrastructure. However, mining operations can be incredibly damaging to the environment, negatively impacting local ecosystems and communities. Mark Dorgan, Technical & Sales Manager at SIFCO ASC, discusses how the industry can minimize its impact through selective brush plating.

EPS and GIT have partnered to add propeller coatings across EPS' fleet. The extensive application will maximize vessel performance with GIT’s eco-friendly, highly durable, and ultra-low friction foul-release coating.

Hiding power is one of paint’s most important attributes. If a paint doesn’t effectively hide the surface beneath it, its color won’t come through as intended and the finish won’t look good. On a more detailed level, the hiding power of pigments within the paint must be enough to cover the solution’s substrate.

In current practical applications, the classification of attapulgite clay is mainly based on its functions and uses. Colloidal attapulgite clay, combined with other soft clays and suitable additives, can be used in thin-layer coatings such as EPC coatings for casting, anti-corrosion coatings at certain high temperatures, insulation coatings, and anti-oxidation coatings. 

Digitalization is transforming many industries. How do paint and coatings suppliers effectively leverage digitalization? What are the pivotal strategic shifts required to succeed in the digital age? What synergies can be unlocked between digital innovation and legacy processes?

Waterborne latexes are produced via emulsion polymerization, in which surfactants or emulsifiers are the key components to control latex properties. Much effort has been made to reduce the impact of surfactants on the performance of waterborne formulations. One of the promising approaches is to use polymerizable or reactive surfactants to prepare latex polymers. 

Many waterborne coating formulations utilize eco-friendly biopolymers, which have beneficial properties such as being biodegradable, and contain much fewer VOCs. Today, there are renewable materials that are worth consideration and greater investigation to further improve sustainability of products at the end of their useful lives; these materials are carbohydrate-based polymers produced from starch.

As the coatings industry continues to prioritize waterborne systems, further research to provide coatings with comparable properties to those based on solvent-based systems is required. This paper, winner of the PCI Award for Technical Excellence at the 2023 Waterborne Symposium, presents a surfactant-free encapsulation process that enables the enclosure of polysiloxanes of arbitrary molecular weight in capsules of nanometer size in a simple, scalable process.