MARKETS
Home Appliances Provide Growing Market For Thermosetting Acrylic Enamels The use of thermosetting acrylic en amels on home appliances is increas ing. Already well entrenched in the coatings market for clothes washers, the acrylic finishes are moving in strongly on clothes dryers and dish washers. Use of the enamels on ranges, freezers, refrigerators, and air conditioners is also increasing, but at a slower pace. Whirlpool's Marion division, for ex ample, is now base and top coating its clothes dryers with acrylic finishes. Westinghouse is using acrylic finishes in place of porcelain on the inside of all its chest freezers. Several other appliance manufacturers are using them on ranges and refrigerators.
The major home appliance market consists of dish washers, dryers, freezers, ranges, refrigerators, room air conditioners, washers, washerdryer combinations, and disposers, λΐοΐ'β than 18 million of these units were shipped last year. They con sumed about 5 million gallons of coat ings, worth about $20 million. This year, the market should be about the same as it was in 1963 or even better. Acrylics probably account for less than one fourth of the dollar value of this market now, but their share is gaining. The most widely used top coats on major appliances are alkyds—partic ularly melamine-modified alkyd bak ing enamels. The big .advantage of
TOUCH UP. Operator applies additional acrylic enamel top coat to critical areas on clothes dryer cabinets at Whirlpool Corp.'s Marion division plant in Marion, Ohio. Use of acrylic finishes on home appliances is increasing steadily 42
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alkyd coatings is their good, all-around performance at low cost. They are also easy to apply. Acrylic finishes cost more than alkyds. However, they resist stain better, are harder, and hold their gloss better than the alkyds, acrylic proponents claim. Despite the fact that they are relatively new, thermo setting acrylic enamels have already found use on aluminum siding and automobiles. Chances are good that acrylic finishes will evenually take over the major appliance top-coat market. Washers. Because of their good de tergent resistance, thermosetting acry lic enamels have succeeded in captur ing more than half of the clothes washer market for top coats and are gaining an increasing share of the coatings market for dish washers and clothes dryers. General Electric, Westinghouse, and Whirlpool all use thermosetting acrylic enamels on their home laundry equipment. Base coats are usually epoxies. However, sev eral manufacturers are now using acrylics for both the base and the top coat. Whirlpool and GE, for in stance, finish their washers with such systems. Most refrigerators and freezers are top-coated with modified alkyds. But the trend is definitely toward the use of acrylics in refrigerators. The Franklin division of Studebaker and the Norge division of Borg-Warner use acrylic enamels on their refrigera tors. Amana Refrigeration, Inc., and the Gibson Refrigerator division of Hupp Corp. use them on both re frigerators and freezers. Other com panies, GE and Westinghouse, for example, use acrylics on some of their refrigerator models and are starting to use them on freezers—the interior as well as the exterior of freezers. Re frigerator and freezer base coats are usually modified epoxies. Ranges are almost always finished with porcelain. Side panels, and a few range fronts, are painted with alkyd-based paints but acrylic finishes are slowly finding a bigger market here, too. Some major appliance mak ers are now using acrylics to coat the side panels. Westinghouse has been evaluating several new acrylics with improved chemical and heat resistance for use on the front panels of its ranges. Base coats for ranges are usually al kyds or epoxies, but practically all range interiors are finished with porce lain.
