A sustainable life for the "inhabitants" of the sea - that's the overall goal of the "Marine Paint" research program. This project, carried out at the University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, is aimed at developing new and effective marine antifouling paints, which are more environmentally friendly than those in use today.
Nowadays coatings have to be environmentally friendly otherwise it is hard to get a product accepted by the market. Improving the environmental profile of new products is a large driver in coatings development. Formulating waterborne systems is one option to reduce the VOC level and to make a system more environmentally friendly. However, dispersing pigments is rather challenging in such systems - foam generation is another nuisance. The use of the right additives helps to face these challenges. However you need to find the perfect mix. Would you change that system if there would be an one in all additive available?
I was talking to some experts of the printing inks industry the other day. They unanimously told me that due to the economic crisis there are hardly any technical developments going on at the moment, neither regarding raw materials nor processing technologies for printing inks. Companies are basically trying to reduce costs and increase efficiency. Among the challenges facing the industry are rising raw material prices, availability of raw materials, regulation and sustainability issues.
