When you are looking at different coatings conference programs you certainly will come across with some duplicates. For the presenting companies this of course makes sense, because they want to spread the information on new developments into the market. Now and again I see talks that have a quite long "conference life time" and I am asking myself if this maybe has to do with the time it takes to bring a new development from the lab to the market. If it takes some years, then you have to present pretty the same story till you have a new development. How long does it take to perform a new coatings development?
Marine coatings and furniture coatings are for sure very different in their chemistry, due to their different requirements of their substrates. Plastic coatings and wood coatings are as well not from the same pool of basic raw material mixture. But it is also true that a part of the raw materials can be found in different environments. That’s why I am quite sure, that everybody can learn a lot from the other coatings chemistry. Don't you think that you might be able to gain product ideas or small solutions while having a look into different fields?
Recently, Peter Rieck wrote on EC Editors’ Blog that it is about time to further invest in innovation, R&D and marketing – or in a nutshell: investing in one’s future. This is easier said than done, even with a good idea. Apart from causing costs, innovation projects also tie human workforce. This is especially crucial for SMEs with only a small staff that cannot simply spare needed capacities for a single project.
The European Union has come up with new plans to increase the resource efficiency of manufacturing companies. Specifically referring to manufacturing SME, the German agency for material efficiency for example sees a potential to increase efficiency by up to ...
Posted at: 8 April 2011 11:21:00 | Posted by: Sonja Specks, Vincentz Network Scarcity of raw materials
Maybe the story started during the worldwide recession. Raw material suppliers shortened investments and further developments and even had to decrease their headcount. During this period the demand by coatings manufacturers for raw material decreased, too. Both needed to adapt to the challenging fact of smaller sales volumes. Therefore, I can understand that it was not possible to increase the production capacity as fast as the economy became cured. But still it seems to be a fact, as I heard lately during the European Coatings SHOW, that it is very tough to buy titanium dioxide nowadays for a reasonable price. Softening agents seem to be less available, too.
More than a week has passed since I have listened to Hans Wijers bringing the topic up during his talk at the Coatings Summit in Washington: To what extent is the paint and coatings industry still facing an image problem? Here are the facts:...
These days I hear many people complain about the winter season: "It is too cold, too windy, too uncomfortable to stay outside." I want to tell them: look at the coatings outside. If they have feelings, they for sure even feel much more dreadful.
Delivery difficulties for and disproportional price increases of many raw materials are challenging the coatings industry. According to national and international associations prices for certain raw materials have increased drastically – in the worst case by up to 50 %.
