SAFETY IN PRODUCTION PROCESSES AND CARE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT: THESE ARE THE REAL 4.0 INNOVATIONS

The term sustainability, which should have as its primary objective to act in the present with a projected vision to what will be "the productive tomorrow", is increasingly in use in the industrial sector.

It is therefore essential to think about the medium and long term and give the word sustainability two different meanings: a broader one, which includes social development, as well as economic and ecological, and a narrower one, which instead refers almost exclusively to the aspects of environmental management and resources, which are feared to be exhausted over time. Sustainability rhymes with responsibility and not only by assonance.

In fact, the conceptual “company that keeps its priorities straight” is one of the most recent topics on management and corporate policy. The business model of the company, traditionally structured to handle a small universe of known and "safe" issues, is now facing a much broader and more diversified scenario, where everything is faster, where reputation and credibility are influenced by variables often independent of the mere production mechanism. What matters then is to have an inclusive overview and a perception aligned to the global market.

Despite strong competition and a major problem of counterfeiting, Italy covers over 50% of European production and over 15% of global production (source: Unic, Unione Nazionale Industria Conciaria). The entire local manufacturing system is strongly influenced by territoriality, which represents adds to its credibility and represents a high added value of Made in Italy, thanks to a strongly ”artisanal" tradition.

However, this should not lead us to underestimate the necessities and perception of a global market that seeks quality, competitiveness but also products that are safe and environment-friendly. This brings eco-friendliness to become an important factor of competitiveness, a further immaterial added value for the Italian industry.

Technological innovation linked to topics such as environment and safety is, in fact, a reasonable goal for responsible entrepreneurship and is an element that contributes to the perception of quality that is usually associated with Italian manufacturing productions. However, while it is true that environmental sensitivity begins to spread among some consumer groups, it is equally true that much remains to be done so that "green" investments translate into an economic return on the market and an effective competitive asset for companies in the sector. In the last two decades, even under the pressure of increasingly stringent regulations, the coating sector, for example, has invested in various initiatives aimed at reducing the impact on the environment.

Aircom, an Italian company specialized in the design and production of automatic spray guns for the leather, plastic, wood and glass industries, has long since understood this, investing its resources on design, research and development, the fundamentals for the production of pieces not only evolved and aesthetically beautiful, but safe and durable.

Nothing represents this line of thought better than the latest addition to their catalogue, Aircom Eco, a spray gun designed to meet two fundamental objectives: attention to the ecological factor of industrial processes and their environmental impact and consequent, important, cost reduction during the painting phase.

To achieve this,the product has been developed in order to allow processing at very low atomization pressures in order to obtain both a high saving of coating products and a significant reduction in atmospheric emissions (value certified according to UNI EN 13 966-1).

Aircom is synonymous with reliability and safety, thanks to the values that have always distinguished the company and which translate into a dynamic production, in commercial offers never standardized but calibrated on the needs of individual customers and in a maximum level of guarantee for the final customer, proven by the most important certifications in terms of efficiency and transfer.

Ready for “Industry 4.0” and the smart factory with Nordson dense phase technology

Industry 4.0 develops solutions that use proven mass production methods to manufacture customized products – in extreme cases with a batch size of 1. In that context, personal color selection is playing an increasingly important role in many markets – and also posing new challenges for powder coating operations. With its HDLV pumps, Nordson’s highly efficient dense phase technology is available from manual application to fully automated, robot-controlled coating systems: a perfect example of pioneering coating technology that combines maximum productivity and flexibility with optimum profitability.

In the 1910s, when a journalist timidly asked why the Model T only came in one color, Henry Ford replied with the now famous phrase: “Every customer can have his car painted any color they want as long as it's black.”

The journalist purportedly let it go at that, and for the millions of people who bought the first large-scale production automobile manufactured in mass quantities, the importance accorded individual color selection also paled in comparison with the high practical benefit provided at a low price: When the last “Tin Lizzie” rolled off the production line in 1926, black remained the only color option.

Since the days of Industry 2.0 – just like after what eventually came to be known as the age of mass production that Henry Ford helped launch – the demands of customers have changed dramatically. Today it goes without saying that they configure even the most complex technical devices to match their strictly personal preferences. Cars are still a good example: At the height of the current wave of automation driven by platforms and modules (Industry 3.0), the VW Group offers 156 different steering wheels, an Opel Astra can be ordered in 360 different combinations of engines and optional equipment (while a 3-Series BMW is available in 453 different configurations), and there is a Maserati Quattroporte with over 4 million variants – to say nothing of the variation that can be achieved through combinations. “All together, the number of different ways we can combine components is 10 raised to the 20th power,” according to the Head of Complexity Management at Audi, Klaus Alders, who was quoted at the time. And the Variant Manager at BMW, Franz Decker, even estimates the number of options available to him as “10 raised to the 32nd power.”

Customization in its ultimate form: Batch size = 1

The more product individuality a manufacturer accords its customers, the greater the resulting complexity costs. And those costs were precisely what Henry Ford so successfully fought against.

That’s the way things were – till now.

The smart factory or Industry 4.0 – the great transformation that has already taken hold of production and work processes and is attracting the attention of about half of all German companies – has become a top priority, above all in the manufacturing sector. It aims to maximize production flexibility by seamlessly networking people, machines, systems and services. Industry 4.0 is characterized by sensory-perceptive and intelligent machines (artificial intelligence) arranged together and with others in a continuous exchange of data (Internet of Things). Their objective is to achieve “individually customized mass production” (mass customization), i.e. to apply the beneficial effects of mass production (economies of scale, learning curve advantages) toward the manufacture of extremely individual products. Ideally, even the customer is integrated into this network, selecting their configuration online to control the machinery that then produces their desired product right before their eyes.

This enables the manufacturer to produce a previously unimaginable range of products without having to maintain uneconomically large component inventories. And ultimately, why not Batch size 1 – i.e. a product produced only once for a single customer?

More economical coating as a step toward mass customization

With many articles of everyday life, a personally selected color expresses the individual taste of the owner. In the case of supplied parts and technical components, painting is indicative of origin (manufacturer’s color) and underscores the intended quality appeal.

Since demands for the customizability of products are rising right along with more intense competition and cost pressures, the cost-effectiveness and flexibility of coating systems are playing an increasingly decisive role. The solution lies in the streamlining of processes (lean manufacturing) and the minimization of downtimes, while effective material usage also helps reduce production costs and raise profit margins.

This also places high demands on an equipment system, because the investment in a state-of-the-art powder coating system is amortized by

o fast coating processes and high output

o uniformly high coating quality and film thickness without rework

o a high degree of automation requiring minimal intervention by operating personnel

o economical operation that consumes a minimum of resources

o careful application of materials

o the ability to change colors rapidly – even more than once during a shift 

o fast and thorough cleaning of the equipment

o easy maintenance, and

o extremely durable components.

In order to take full advantage of flexibility and economic potentials, it is important not only to optimize individual components, but also to fully integrate and harmonize entire powder coating systems. That means powder materials, lines, pumps, guns, extraction technology and booths.

Nordson dense phase technology: Integrated, efficient, flexible

The key to Nordson’s high-efficiency powder coating is dense phase technology with its characteristic HDLV (High Density Low Velocity) pumps, which has dramatically improved both processes and results.

Enabling powder material savings of up to 45%, this technology operates at much lower air pressure, gives users accurate control over the quantity of powder coating supplied and allows them to work with even greater precision. Instead of a conventional Venturi pump, it uses a two-chamber pump in which four air-operated pinch valves open and close in pairs. As soon as an inlet value opens, the discharge valve closes, powder is drawn in and stored. In the next work cycle, the powder is forced out of the first chamber while the second chamber is being filled. This results in constant, linear powder delivery, ensuring high application efficiency with low powder consumption – and maintains that performance for extended periods under an extremely wide range of settings, even when processing thin film powders.

Nordson’s HDLV pumps are virtually maintenance-free, which means they also boost quality, flexibility and production benefits over the long term. The only components subject to wear are the pinch valves, which are designed for a service life up to 4,000 hours. They regularly last well beyond that figure, however, thereby minimizing expensive maintenance and downtime.

When used in combination with the specially developed Nordson powder guns, HDLV pumps offer even greater benefits. These include reduced color contamination, more uniform coating thickness and better coating of Faraday cages. Color changes are also especially fast and the self-cleaning feature keeps them trouble-free.

Hoses with a diameter of just 6 millimeters supply the guns and produce soft spray pattern. This adheres better, thereby raising application efficiency, facilitating the coating of complex geometries, minimizing the amount of work required, increasing the production rate and reducing powder consumption.

The powder application rate is easily regulated by means of the control system, so no mechanical adjustments are required.

The technology is ideally suited for fully automated production and helps achieve even the most ambitious lean manufacturing objectives.

Intelligent control, essentially independent of operator qualifications

Equipped with many sensors, a modern powder coating application system determines all relevant control parameters for material supply, application and booth, and continuously provides production and system status data to a central control system. Integrated network interfaces make it possible to monitor the powder application and greatly facilitate remote diagnosis.

An industrial touchscreen enables control of all coating process parameter, such as supply and atomizer air settings, electrostatics, and gun stroke and triggering, as well as color change sequences. Preset and widely adaptable programs make it easy to optimize performance for an extremely wide range of products and powder materials. Last but not least, such a highly automated system lowers the qualifications required of the equipment operators.

Whether manual, automatic or fully robot-controlled, Nordson’s perfectly harmonized dense phase components provide powder coaters with the right technology to coat even the smallest batch sizes flexibly and economically and to take full advantage of the opportunities that “Industry 4.0” offers.

At this year’s PaintExpo, from April 17-20, 2018, (Messe Karlsruhe, Hall 2, Booth 2440) Nordson will show the appropriate coating solutions with a variety of dense phase applications and end user products.

“POWDER AREA “COLOUR CHANGE IN 90 SECONDS, IN COATING BOOTH IN 3-5 MINUTES : A 4.0 REVOLUTION

When you visit Euroverniciatura plant, you can immediately notice a technical-cultural growth of this subcontracting company.

This growth is undoubtedly due to the company entrepreneurs’will (Pietro Cersosimo and Chiara Guarda),who are focused on many factors, in particular on investements for innovative equipment- such as powder coating booth- cutting-edge plants and nanotechnology-based chemical process.

The company continuously integrates the innovations that gradually are industrialized in the market ( it integrated nanotechnologies into the pre-treatment tunnel, applied by spraying): currently a revolutionary equipment for color change by Siver Nordson has been installed .

It is a simple process ( real innovations are simple to use but are the result of in-depth studies and research, before being developed and industrialized), and that we describe below.

Euroverniciatura coating is very efficient, starting from the pre-treatment and the innovations introduced in the powder coatings booth, which, by itself, has undoubtedly raised the technical level of the company.

THE PLANT

With this plant the coating cycle is complete, by assuring a high quality level, starting from- after the items’loading on the conveyor- the surface preparation with appropriate nanotechnology-based pre-treatement,up to the application of powder coatings finish in various colours /per day.

Our investements’ goal – tell us Pietro Cersosimo- is competitivity .Our offer, for Italian and European customers, has a high quality level and fast delivery,according to cycles, colours, and items’customisation.

The color change,its speed, is a strategic competitive factor.

For this reason we choose the innovative “powder area” by Siver Nordson, that in 90 seconds allows the colour change -underlines Pietro Cersosimo -a real “revolution” we have been waiting for long.

 “POWDER AREA”
After the nanotechnology-based pre-treatment spraying and subsequent drying, the items reach the large powder coatings booth , equipped with a so called “powder area”, to distinguish it from the traditional “powder centre” that takes from 3 to 5 minute for the colour change (5 minutes from dark colour to light ones).

“Powder area”,consists of Top Color Change HD Dual, by Siver Nordson,equipped with two independent boxes of fluidified powder coatings. With this configuration, during the coating phase, a box feed the spray-guns while the other one is ready to apply the next colour.

During the change colour phase the system goes from a box to the other in less than 90 seconds, by cleaning simultaneously powder coatings tubes and all spray- guns used.

The system manages automatically the distributor tubes in a very precise way allowing to rightly positioning themselves.The operator must only follows the simple instructions on the HMI screen.

After the colour change, the coating cycles restarts with the new colour,an automated process allows the unloading and the cleaning of the box used before so it is ready for a new colour.

A curing oven and the loading/unloading items area integrate the large coating plant.

CONCLUSIONS

 “We invite you so that the readers of Verniciatura Industriale could know all the innovations which currently could improve powder coating process” ends Pietro Cersosimo.

By replacing the traditional “Powder Centre” with Top Color Change HD Dual we improved on line productivity and we fully automated a phase very unpleasant for plant’s operator.

All cycle times are optimised as in our painting line where we mainly paint trucks’chassis.

We are very satisfied- ended Pietro Cersosimo:actually our offer is more competitive, also in terms of delivery time.

A great effort by our company , but the results obtained are excellent.

SOLVENTS ABATEMENT IN SPRAYING BOOTHS AND CURING OVENS FOR PAINTS TO FINISH PLASTIC ITEMS

Coaters of manufactured plastic items must comply always stricter laws about solvent emission reduction, and they are very worried about investment cost necessary to purchase after burners available on the market (nowadays called thermal oxidisers). They must consider also to spend more resources to incinerate solvents as eventual downtimes (or in case of low concentration of emitted solvents) it is compulsory to fuel the thermal oxidiser with methane gas in order to keep temperature since Vocs coming from the booth are very low.

Came (Bussero, Milano, Italia), a company specialised in plants for solvents abatement through self-generating actived carbons, through an innovate technology developed by Ezio Crespi, the main expert in this sector. 

HT company (Cherasco, Cuneo, Italia) installed this kind of plant to abate solvents: in the area where the company operates the emission limit is 50 mg Nm3/h, the plant does not emit more than 5 mg/h (it treats 40.000 Nm3/h of polluted air coming from the booth and the curing oven)

The cost investment is less than 50% compared to a traditional thermal treatment system, and the management costs are between 50 and 100 euro monthly.

The enterprise coats plastic components for the Italian automotive industry. 

The VOC treatment plant through activated carbons is very simple ant very smart at the same time:

-          The fumes emitted by the booth and the oven (the plant treats 40.000 Nm3/h of polluted prior to filtration) are canalised to the plant

-          Vocs are absorbed by activated carbons that once saturated, are regenerated with stream vapours obtained from stripped solvents combustion.

CONCLUSIONS

The solvents abatement of the coating plants, for those who are forced to use solvent-based coatings is not a productive step but compulsory to comply polluting emissions with parameters prescribed by law. 

So those who coat must evaluate the abatement plant operational capacity; to reduce to minimum the investment cost and the operational cost: plant developed by Crespi and manufactured by CAME is a really efficient solution.

Color collection Opal, onyx, cryolite, hematite, graphite and pyrite 2018 colour trends according to Renner Italia

Color Tunes Book: the project defining Renner Italia way of colour. «With Color Tunes Book we want to suggest to interior designers and furniture brands the trendy aesthetic solutions, the most original effects, the most refined shades in a well-thought-out and innovative collection of our coatings - explained Manuel Siragna, commercial director of the company producing wood coatings in Minerbio (Bologna) -. As always, we are made to service. Even in the complex field of colour design, our aim is to offer solutions ». An ambitious project that exploits the synergy between the Milan-based studio Azzolini-Tinuper and Renner laboratories.

Elegant and minimalist, Color Tunes Book explains the painted wood with precious and refined effects. «Among the thousands of formulas and the infinite solutions offered by Renner Italia laboratories, it was not easy to make a choice - said the designer Paola Tinuper -. Downstream of a long and exciting work, we identified six nuances (opal, onyx, rhyolite, hematite, graphite and pyrite) and five special effects giving adequate answers to the most current requests».

Velati. Tramati. Vibrati. Sfumati. Marcati. These are the five special effects of 2018 edition of Color Tunes Book. The selected colours range from grey to baby blue, they change to ochre, softening the shades of yellow. Why these shades? «The colour range selected for Color Tunes Book 18 is divided into six "tone" proposals - explained Paola Azzolini - that is low-saturation shades, selected according to colour trends around the world. Two warm neutral colours (opal and pyrite) and a cool neutral one (graphite) respond to requests in the world of grey and dove-grey-brown. Also, the other three colours are part of the natural reinterpreted area: onyx, a yellow ochre suggesting the world of gold; rhyolite, a burnt orange suggesting the world of copper; hematite, a colour to cover the taste areas, reminding to trendy and easily combinable with the natural essences blue-green shades. All these colours work well together as a tracery ».

With Tramati the wood is almost confused with the fabric: «Tramati reveal the vocation of wood to play with chiaroscuro and are designed for interiors in which wood becomes the protagonist thanks to the manufacturing of the surface - added Azzolini -. It is a refined effect, reinterpreted in a daily way, a textile effect to be worn with ease on different elements: parquet, boiserie, doors, floors ... In Color Tunes Book we included images of environments and images of details to stimulate possible interpretations of the product».

In Velati, the colour respects the authentic weave of the essence, effects and colours are designed for which kind of wood? «Velati - said Tinuper - have a hyper matt (zero gloss) and smooth topcoat, in which the vein of natural wood is highlighted. The proposal was developed on durmast, a very trendy wood, acquiring with this treatment a contemporary and renewed aesthetic ». Metal, strongly appreciated even at the last sector exhibitions, seems the most distant effect from the idea of wood as a material. «Metal is a very trendy effect and has been proposed in a matt version with thin grain - revealed Tinuper - therefore a very refined metal in a range of soft shades. It can be used on large backgrounds, or reinterpreted as a detail to enhance articulated compositions with other effects. In the "traceries" section, Color Tunes Book suggests some proposals».

Finally, architect Azzolini indicated the guidelines that inspired the “behind the scenes” of the Color Tunes Book: «Our studio plunged into the research of trends in the world of furniture, interlacing information about the world of coverings, furniture, accessories and decor. We identified the most interesting trends for the world of wood coatings: the total matt effects, the micro-textures of textile effect, shades of vintage taste, the effects of micro-mixed decoration and the macro veins. Therefore, we developed a colour range by re-launching a new interpretation of stained natural wood. It’s a big project. We are very satisfied. We had the opportunity to experiment particular effects and freedom, proposing new interpretations. It was nice to interact with a prepared, young and dynamic laboratory, which in real time gave us all the answers we were looking for».

The Color Tunes Book project can be consulted on www.renneritalia.com.

Waterborne coatings: why are they seldom used even if the final consumer and law are against solvents?

Gianni Giardina interview: a plant that has grown an experience of more than 45 years in wood coating industry up.

PM- In the last ten-year period you could chase the initiation of thousands of plants that used water-based coatings.  Which would the main purpouses that facilitated that installations? Today can these motivations be valid for proposing again the use of these paints?

GG- In the next century, the heavy expansion and industrialization in wooden industry, guided to an overstated purpose of solvent-based coatings, damages to the environment and people that worked in factories.  Even the final purchasers of coated manufacts were subjected to indirect consequences. For many years thay have breathed the solvents’ vapors that came from the surfaces of the furniture bought many time before.  For different reasons, everyone wanted to eliminate solvents, and yet the change started just with the beginning of the new year.

PM- What has the change prevented?

GG: The three main characters of this sector, coatings plants and coaters, should have cooperated. At the end of the last century, the waterborne paints were unsaleable because:

1) They costed much more than the solvent ones. The lacking used quantity didn’t allow an economy of scale in research and production;

2) The technicians couldn’t guarantee a repetitive drying. For example it was very difficult to apply the spray paints, to have regularity in each part of the coated batch and, as a consequence, to provide the right quantity with the wet features necessary to paint strip water in film coating. The accidental variation of one of these parametres meant that it couldn’t be possibile to pile the batches at the end of the coating line. So painters weren’t willing to have an uncertain result and to spend more in production costs.

PM – Starting from the 19th century something has changed the scenery so much that thounsands of users successfully installed water plants in the first 5-6 years. What’s happened?  

GG: During the 1999, a young Friulian engeneer who worked in a regional research center, accidentally changing some wavelenghts, identified some anomalies on the samples.  Through common knowledges he put them through me. This made me build a prototype and, thanks to others consolidated technologies, I could develop a deliver coating water system, without heating the batch and using the air of the environment for the exsiccation.  

With the new technology we called different clients interested in water-based coatings and so we successfully sold and installed the first microwave technology plants.

PM – So were coatings already ready?

GG: Not yet, but by removinq the exsiccation air, the users started working and producing with water-based paints. In the mean time, in the six months between the acceptance of the client, the installation and the final delivery, the technicians could create coatings with the quality requested by the consumer.   Counting on sure consumption and a huge potential market, the coatings producers throw themselves in the research, succeeding in reducing prices and giving to the water-based coatings the same features of the solvent-based ones. 

PM- What did you do to fight the scepticism around water-based products?

GG- We work a lot with marketing. For each new functional plant, we realized an interview to the client, photos and videos. All the multimedial material was sent by email to hundreds of potential clients and posted on the website. So anyone could call into question the words of a client that was satisfied by its painted production with water-based coatings while it was piled at the exit of the oven. This had the effect to put an increasingly attention to the waterborne paints and the new plants.

In the mean time others technologies such as IR and vertical ovens could have been successfully proposed by other technicians. In just a few years hundreds of plants have been realized for furniture, kitchens, doors and windows, contours, chairs, coffers and so on. 

PM- What’s happened then? Why did statistics tell us that the water-based products consumption is decreasing?

GG:- First let’s specify that the purpose of water-based paints on wooden doors and windows could never change. The furniture is a different story.

Thanks to the general crisis developed all over the world, the furniture sector have seen both the crisis of the water- based products and of all the application systems projected for big ranges of batches. The companies, in order to sale and please their clients, accepted also little orders using plants projected for large volumes of batches. Anyone was ready to work waterborne little batches, so they hand painted in booths or relied on third party that worked in booth too.

Working in coathing booths without the right equipment meant to entrust to the weather conditions for the exsiccation and this is really dangerous. We must add that, when you apply the coating above both the surfaces and sides of a patch, it’s important to do it with the same paint in favour of the final quality.

There’s a waiting time in vaporizing all of the sides of the patches. It could be a long wait if you use water-based products without the right plant, so the pot life will surely be already expired and so you must throw away the coating and make a new one. The new paint could not have the same shades of the first one.  In conclusion: the coater choose much more safe and rapid solvent-based paints, fast drying on a carriage, even without adequate plant.

PM- So how do you get out of it? Do we have to wait for the end of the crisis to not pollute by using industrial plants?

GG:- Not necessary, exsiccation water-based paints safe systems exist for single carriages. These systems exsiccate little batches in few time to turn patches by using the same coating above all the sides.  I built about ten for clients that already worked with little batches. In Italy there are about three technicians that produce them.  They are small low cost plants. 

PM- Ikea is an example of how we can create a market on sustainability and convince the consumer that we can and must produce respecting the environment with suitable materials, including paints. This philosophy has become their commercial strength. The "People & Planet" program foresees that by 2020 it will be 100% eco-sustainable. The tendency of the legislator seems to want to limit more and more all the products considered dangerous for human health, such as formaldehyde, heavy metals, solvents, and CO2 emissions. How can painters follow this "Ikea trend" and respect the laws?

GG- Ikea philosophy is irreversible, scaled-world. You can try to fight just on some segments of the market, even if today the alternatives could always be found.  Some years ago Ikea was known as a producer of economic and unreliable furniture. Time after time it invested in quality and marketing. It made the world understand that the beauty and the bad are individual, because they have to satisfy the likings of all the world but quality, price and reliability are general such as the environment respect.

The furniture maker that wants to follow Ikea or similar companies, naturally for a different clients range, can do it by investing in design without giving quality, reliability and environment respect up. He would be defeated before to start fighting. 

PM- In summary, what should we do?

GG- With the crisis the furniture makers had rightly to adjust their general costs to the sales volume. Now they have to adapt the plants to the new productive needs. We talk about flexible plants, that accepted one batch, automated and that use unpolluted paints. The tecnichians could be the main characters in this adaptation. Then everything must be given to marketing and communication.  

Only with these purposes they could enter the increasingly aggressive market. 

Sirca goes green

Thinking about the future by living the present. This is the philosophy that motivates everyone who believes in a better world. This is the definition of resilience, the people capacity to change their style of life to solve the problems. Never as now we are witnesses of lots of weather, environmental and energetic crisis.

We need concrete actions. Today it’s important to do what’s right.

The weather changes represent an urgent and irreversible threat for humans and the planet. The consumers has new moral values such as the environment respect, the decrease in energy needs and in the consumption of no-renewable energies with the consequent decrease of emissions of gas in the atmosphere. This new awareness of the consumers provided the change need.

The climate change is not just an environmental problem, it’s a health threat, because in a warmer world the infectious deseases easily spread. It endangers the food production, making the soils dry and not good for the nourishment production or the pasturage.

It damages the soil itself by flows produced by the increasing level of seas caused by the fusion of the polar caps. Our destiny is inexstricably linked with the one of all the species and ecosystems of the planet.

It has never happened such a high concentration of CO_2.  If it smells we would understand the real danger. In May 2017 CO₂ reached the highest monthly levels ever, as it shows by the underlying chart National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration statunitense (Noaa).

Today both consumers and companies perceive the necessity to enter in this new socio-economical directive. The main principles are energetic efficiency, low carboon footprint, high- tech content in production and products, the use of renewable and sustainable resources, optimization in the use of raw materials and responsible use of products made by raw materials derived from renewable sources.

During its consumption it goes not only from cradle-to-grave, but from cradle to cradle that includes its rycicle.

To ricycle the garbage means to give a value to the garbage itself, by recovering raw materials useful for the production of new materials.

The wooden furniture, coatings and raw materials for the paint industry sectors move fastly to this direction.

The furniture producers and its suppliers strive to have a much more sustainable production. To reduce carboon footprint they use specific coating materials and products with a low environmental impact effect (such as waterborne products). They allow to have a more healthy workplace and to considerably improve the quality of own domestic indoor environment.

Sirca has always believed responsibly in these values and put attention to these topics. In the last ten years it took a green route to strongly reduce its own products’ carboon footprint, by investing time and resources in reasearching and developing ecofriendly and sustainable products, anticipating times and showing a strong environmental ethos. You could not recycle a coater but you can produce one made of bio-polymers produced with bio-monomers derived from food industry wastes.  

Technical solutions S-Cover by Sirca

The forefather of this family has been OW120 and its own catalyst CWN3IO, bicomponent waterborne primer, presented in April 2017, at the European Coating Show.

A bath furniture has been made and exposed in Nuremberg during the ECS, painted with open-pore coating that guarantee a natural effect. The main goal was to demonstrate that you can reduce the use of fossils without losing quality, performances and style, by creating an added value for the consumer, another step ahead for a more sustainable life.

The choosen product, used as a typical water-based bicomponent product, stands out for its 75% renewable content in the A part and 55% in the B part. 

Since that moment R&D Laboratory of Sirca has completed the technical solution available to satisfy the interior furniture market, adding matt lacquered finishes, one-piece and two-component, and textured, of the desired final color. Further completion is given by a trasparent primer specific for parquet, that bind high estetical qualities with elevated performances and best chemical and physical resistance.

The same attention and commitment have been dedicated to the frames sector, by developing high quality products and outstanding yellowing resistances and to the atmospheric agents, both transparent and laquered.

Sirca can praise a complete range, unique in the wood coating industry, technical ecofriendly and sustainable tecniques that could embrace every type of producers and final users need.  

Designing green paint together: one block at a time

A master craftsperson is striving hard to create a beautiful, practical and ethical product: one piece at a time. Chances are, this scene sounds familiar. Perhaps the description fits someone you know; maybe even yourself. But it also fits a completely different type of craftsman: one who wears a white coat instead of a regular jacket; and who works in a lab instead of a studio or workshop.

At DSM, our scientists don’t make furniture and they don’t build houses. But like most designers we know, they are optimists – imagineers who spend their lives wondering ‘what if’; continually reframing challenges and reiterating their work in pursuit of the next big breakthrough. Sometimes, a ‘what if’ evolves into a ‘why not?’ And occasionally…it becomes a reality. One such example is Decovery®: a family of paint resins from DSM that bind the product’s ingredients together and essentially represent the heart & soul of the paint. Most importantly, Decovery® is made primarily from plants.

The path to plant-based paint

That’s right. We can now design paint from plants, seeds and leaves in much the same way that today’s design industry creates products from natural, sustainable materials. What’s more we can achieve this while delivering the very finest of finishes.

It’s this ability of Decovery® to benefit planet and performance that we believe represents the next big breakthrough in sustainable paint – based on principles that will be familiar to many of you in the design industry. In fact the concept behind the plant-based building blocks that we use to create Decovery® resins are remarkably similar to those that designers, builders and architects use. The only difference? Our scientists are fitting their block together on a far smaller scale (think seven times thinner than a human hair), and instead of being made from bricks or concrete, our blocks come from plant residue.

Specifically, we extract the sugars, starches and natural oils from trees and agricultural waste through process known as biomass conversion to create our building blocks – which are completely free of fossil-based materials. So for our planet, the benefits are clear: a reduced carbon footprint, which in turn helps us tackle climate change. While for people - and more specifically your customers - plant-based paint means the ability to breathe fresh, clean air free from solvent fumes.

Want a sustainable alternative? Just ask!

But before getting too pleased with ourselves, we’re the first to admit there remains a long road ahead. To put that into perspective, today Decovery® resins are up to 50% plant based, so we’re only halfway to creating completely natural paint resin; and it’s here where our counterparts in the design industry can really help. To make our dream a reality we need everyone who uses paint – from designers to manufacturers to painters themselves and everyone in between, to come together to fuel this movement towards a 100 % plant-based finish.

The good news? We’re making progress. For example, our team recently spoke to a door manufacturer about using more sustainable paints. His honest reply was that he’d never thought too much about it - although he was willing to listen. When we explained the sustainable concept behind Decovery® - and how it delivers a win-win-win that benefits planet and performance – he was convinced. Now our team is working with this designer to develop a new, more sustainable paint. So if you’re interested in doing the same why not get vocal – and ask your regular supplier for some sustainable alternatives?

You may well discover that the coating on your product really does start to become…the icing on the cake.

CMA Robotics