This two-day course provides an overview of the many factors involved in developing commercial liquid formulations.

Formulation involves defining customer needs and translating them into a formulation that will deliver the right balance of properties at an acceptable cost. There is seldom a single solution to a formulation requirement, and different technologies offer alternative solutions, which must be judged in the light of operational, environmental, and other considerations.

Formulation may also be defined as the science and technology of producing a mixture of two or more components with more than one conflicting measure of product quality. It therefore requires some understanding of the functional properties of the building blocks, i.e. raw materials, and the science of mixtures.

IT plays a key role in modern paint making and there will be an overview of the operational implications including ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems. Participants will use formulating spreadsheets and databases for creating formulation templates and calculating paint constants.

The course demonstrates different sources of information including the Internet. Information on raw materials (Pigments, Binders, Solvents and Additives) will be illustrated with selected commercially available materials.

Who Should Attend

This course will be particularly useful to suppliers of raw materials formulators and production personnel. To gain maximum benefit from this course attendees should have some practical exposure to paint making, and be comfortable with basic scientific concepts.