The challenges facing the paints and coatings industry in today’s environment
Coatings provide two primary functions that are of considerable economic importance—decoration and protection. More than half of the coatings produced worldwide are used to decorate and protect new constructions as well as to maintain existing structures. Through the next five years, environmental regulations will continue to be a driving force behind the adoption of new coating technologies.
Increasing regulation restrictions
The coatings industry is one of the most heavily regulated industries in the world, producers have been forced to adopt low-solvent technologies in the past 40 years, and will continue to do so. One of the major challenges is stringent environmental regulations due to the presence of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in almost all paints and coatings products. Replacement of these and insurance of constant performance whilst reducing the VOC content is a permanent challenge for the industry.
Raising raw materials costs
The reason for the increasing cost of raw materials is the unexpected high demand in regions such as Asia as well as uncertainty in production in Western Europe and North America. The closure of some production plants in the USA, Europe, and Asia have also resulted in the prices of raw materials increasing. In turn, these factors have resulted in the raw material supply markets gradually tightening, which has impacted raw material pricing. Producers therefore are forced to adopt highest efficiency.
Globalization of the market
Customers become more international, as they move out across the globe, and suppliers and manufacturers are following them. Increased mobility in all respects is the name of the game, for example, the quick spread of best practices. And of course, that has given rise to new and less predictable competition and – on the whole – a less certain and continuously changing future. Companies, brand names and labels which were once competing in the marketplace are now part of a single group. Additionally, more Asian suppliers and demands enter the marketplace.
SCIENOMICS is a software company specialized in materials modeling and simulations. We support our customers’ decision-making process in materials innovation and address related critical business issues through our software technology & contract research services we offer. This will enable our customers to
- improve performances and profitability
- reduce operational costs and risks
- optimize the product design process
- support innovative R&D activities
- help to identify sustainable development processes
- focus the research and development activity
Our range of offers concentrates on the needs of both new product development, for all types of coatings and applications (commodity and industrial paints and coatings), and coating formulation improvement and regulatory compliance.
Product development, a field where SCIENOMICS technology helps identifying new solvents, predicts the stability of coating formulations and estimates the durability and mechanical stability of a coating in different climates. Drying time and water repellency can also be predicted using theoretical methods. These challenges of the development process can be met with various technologies all included in SCIENOMICS MAPS platform.
Innovative research, where the objective is now to replace traditional compounds by non-regulated chemicals, ensure sustainability of end products and remain competitive by efficiently screening a large number of alternatives. SCIENOMICS offers an in-silico approach for performing virtual screening of chemicals, identifying the most promising solutions to design a product and assist understanding why a product performs in a particular way.
