COVER STORY
ALL MIXED UP Xfast pigments can be stirred directly into water-based systems without the laborious processing needed with traditional pigments. BASF says coated hollow granules disperse quickly and evenly.
PAINTS & COATINGS Business has been off this year, but new materials are here—some with astonishing color effects or outstanding preservative qualities MARC S. REISCH, C&EN NORTHEAST NEWS BUREAU
P
A I N T IS A COLORFUL BUSINESS. BY A D D I N G FLASH AND
pizzazz to everyday items, paint provides more than just protection from the elements. And paint's no small business. The U.S. paint market—about 20% of the global paint market—had sales last year of more than $16 billion. Strong housing and automotive markets drove U.S. paint shipments last year. According to the Census Bureau, paint shipments rose more than 6% compared with 2001, to 1.3 billion gal, though the value of sales hardly changed.
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But for this year, consultants say paint shipments are likely to slip compared with 2002. That means tougher conditions not onlyforpaint formulators, but also for suppliers of paint raw material. Still, there are some bright spots where new materials provide benefits to paint users and may offer a profitable edge to formulators who adopt them. Color, for instance, has an immediacy in paints today because of a new generation of so-called interference pigments that add sparkle and glitter and even tweak paint films so they seem to shift color depending on the viewing angle. The razzle-dazzle of these pigments is now splattered on the hottest cars, motorcycles, and cellular phones. C&EN
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COVER STORY Dow Chemical, a major paint materials of the U.S. paint market, according to supplier since its acquisition of Union Steven Nerlfi of consultants Kusumgar, Carbide, snagged a competitive opportuNerlfi & Growney Government pressure nity in a tough market when it acquired to reduce the contributions these systems Celanese's acrylic acid and acrylates busican make to ground-level ozone formation ness for $170 million in September. The (smog) has reached its limit, he says. Most purchase back-integrates Dow^ UCAR formulators have either substituted acEmulsion Systems business, making it a ceptable solvents or reduced solvent conCONSUMER CONCERNS over sick-build stronger acrylic emulsions competitor to ing syndrome are fostering interest in the tent to produce acceptable high-solids Rohm and Haas and BASF. paint systems. specialty biocide additives that keep paints free of mold, mildew, and algae. Sensitive Despite consolidation among However, not all government people complain of allergic reactions to more commodity-oriented maauthorities believe that VOC rethese organisms, and proper treatment of terial suppliers, new materials duction limits have been reached. painted surfaces can reduce the problem in are always coming out to imRobert Nelson, senior director homes and offices. Beginning on page 29, prove paint performance. For infor environmental affairs at the C&EN looks at these biocides, which are stance, Solvay Caprolactones National Paint & Coatings Asalso useful in marine paints that reduce the Business Manager Jeffrey Neisociation (NPCA), says Califorcost of keeping seaweed and barnacles dinger says his firm's caprolacnia's South Coast Air Quality from fouling ship hulls. tone monomers and polyols add Management District, which inenhanced hydrolytic and light cludes counties in the Los AngeBut notwithstanding the bright spots, PAINTS & stability, abrasion resistance, and 2003 is shaping up as a lackluster year for les Basin, "keeps squeezing" paint COATINGS excellent low-temperature permakers for further reductions. the paint industry as a whole. Shipments of formance to automotive clear-coat and titanium dioxide, aharbinger for the coatings The agency is now demanding that liqaerospace applications. industry, are down 8% for the first nine uid coatings such as wood stains, sealers, months of this year, according toJim Fisher, And one materials supplier is developand roof coatings contribute VOCs of onpresident of consulting firm IBMA. The ing an additive with a performance profile ly 50 gper Lby mid-2006, down from 100 fallofffor this essential opacifying pigment the Pentagon could love. Reactive Surfaces, g per L now. Several East Coast states are indicates a less than robust paint market. a year-old start-up firm, is commercializing seeking similar VOC reductions in paints, And price increases recently announced by a proprietary enzyme that, when added to and in one instance NPCA has started litpigment makers are "more of a signal that latex paint, decontaminates organophosigation to keep Delaware from putting new price slippage has stopped," Fisher says. Don't limits into effect. phorus nerve agents that contact the paint expect increases until next year, he adds. surface. According to DeAndra Beck, the The expense of reformulation continues firm's chief executive officer, the enzyme is expressed by a PAINT BLUES gene that company founder Volumes were down in all categories in 2002, and prices slipped in most cases C. Steven McDaniel discovered as a biochemistry graduSPECIAL-PURPOSE COATINGS ARCHITECTURAL COATINGS PRODUCT COATINGS3 ate student at Texas A & M SHIPMENTS SHIPMENTS SHIPMENTS University MILLIONS $PER $PER MILLIONS $PER MILLIONS GAL OF GAL $ BILLIONS $ BILLIONS GAL $ BILLIONS OF GAL OF GAL GAL T h e enzyme additive — 2002 $20.06 632 $3.47 $6.12 $9.68 428 173 $6.10 $14.25 called OPD t o x —degrades 20.29 2001 660 6.62 3.53 174 10.03 440 6.15 13.98 nerve gas agent vapors that 19.84 2000 651 3.61 6.46 9.92 182 453 6.15 13.58 settle on painted surfaces. All 21.18 1999 667 3.41 7.04 407 161 10.55 5.57 13.69 that is required, Beck says, is 18.31 719 1998 3.35 7.12 9.90 183 412 13.47 5.55 the presence of carbon dioxa Original equipment manufacturers. SOURCE: Bureau of the Census ide and water to start a reaction that turns the nerve agents into nonlethal by-products. The enWet summer weather in the Northeast to put pressure on paint makers, especialzyme is not consumed in the reaction, she dampened architectural paint sales, and a ly since VOC limits vary in different parts says, and OPD tox -painted surfaces have reweaker than expected economic recovery of the country. Where Phil G. Phillips, mained active in ongoing tests so far for 14 means that industrial paint sales are also off. president of Chemark Consulting Group, months. Military applications include airExpect sales ofindustrial maintenance paints counted 975 paint formulators in 2000, to be off 2 to 3% in 2003 compared with the plane and vehicle interiors, trailers, barhe counts only 895 today Bigger paint forprevious year, assertsJayWilner, president of mulators have the means to survive. Many racks, and decontamination shelters. While consultants W E H Corp. "No one is buildsmaller "mom and pop" paint makers are OPD t o x won't prevent harm to people exing new industrial plants," he says. "There is being forced out of business, Phillips says. posed to nerve agents, it will mitigate exno need to add capacity now In the rare inConsolidation has also hit material supposure to first responders and aid the rapstance when there is need for additional capliers. Akzo Nobel, for instance, plans to id cleanup of contaminated facilities. pacity, installations are going in overseas." sell its coatings resins operations. BASF is Most paint materials don't offer such concentrating its European powder coatDespite years of environmental presdeath-defying stunts. But Reactive Surings business in Italy and discontinuing sure to reduce the volatile organic comfaces' additive shows what research and a product development and manufacturing pound (VOC) component in paints, solcolorful imagination can bring to a busiin Munster-Hiltrup, Germany vent systems are still king, comprising 47% ness that many perceive as ho-hum. • Automotive markets typically benefit first from new color technology as competition between the major paint makers and the marketing demands of car makers help push along the latest advances. C&EN looks into the color revolution beginning on page 25.
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