WESEL, Germany – An internal interdisciplinary project team at BYK Additives & Instruments that has developed CMR-free rheological additives to address amended labeling for n-ethylpyrrolidone (NEP) has received the company’s BYK Advance Innovation Prize.

At BYK Additives & Instruments, the amended labeling for NEP, which can be found as a solvent in additives, has also necessitated adjustments to the labeling of some rheological additives. Parallel to this, an internal interdisciplinary project team focused on developing suitable solvent alternatives.

The development team that was awarded this year’s BYK Advance Innovation Prize investigated around 70 different solvents in various coating applications, taking account of the regulations and resulting registration requirements such as REACH and TSCA, and created alternatives based on the carriers that are not labeled as CMR, amide esters (ES) and amide ethers (ET).

The new rheological additives cover the whole polarity range from high to low polarity. They control the thixotropic flow, have an outstanding shear-thinning effect and exhibit time-dependent structure recovery.

BYK-7410 ET, BYK-7411 ES and BYK-7420 ES improve the anti-sagging effect and storage stability. In addition, the rheological additives exhibit excellent substrate wetting and perfect leveling.

The award winners from the Synthesis, Rheology and Application Technology departments received the prize from Dr. Gerald Kirchner, Head of Corporate EH&S at ALTANA, in the presence of Dr. Stephan Glander, President Division BYK Additives & Instruments, and Dr. Horst Sulzbach, Head of Research & Development (BYK).