Applied to surfaces or parts of surfaces, coatings can be either decorative or functional or both.
Decorative coatings add color, texture and effects, making items eye-catching and attractive. Functional coatings provide protection against damage caused by light and heat, corrosion and weathering, scratching and abrasion, microbial attack, and more.
Coatings create appeal and provide a wealth of different functions
Coatings are an important area in chemicals and used in a wide variety of industries. Like most of the industries it serves, the coating sector aims at enhancing quality while saving costs. Other trends driving developments in coatings are the increasingly stringent emission regulations in many countries as well as other environmental considerations.
Coatings, which are supplied in a variety of physical forms, can be either water- or solvent-based. Intense efforts are being made to replace solvent- with waterborne coating technologies and to reduce generation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
The sector benefits from a special additional trend: coatings are able to provide individuality, a much sought-after feature that adds enormously to the appeal of cars, for example. Novel structures and colors, and effects such as flop and changeant can be combined to produce a unique image and appearance.
In the functional area, there is strong focus today on improving existing technologies and also on smart, such as self-healing, coatings. Self-healing materials automatically repair damage to themselves. Super absorbent polymers, for example, can seal cracks in concrete.
Coatings can be applied on almost all materials or substrates, including ceramics, concrete, glass, metal, plastic and wood.
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