Joe Powder, aka Kevin Biller of ChemQuest Powder Coating Research, shares his powder coating knowledge and expertise by answering questions sent in from around the world.
Internal combustion engines (ICEs) are falling out of fashion to make way for battery electric vehicles (BEVs). Many components, including battery packs and power conversion parts, should have coatings to increase the car’s longevity, and to help with the issues BEV batteries bring. Creative solutions are coming out of the industry to help maintain BEVs for longer.
CWS Lackfabrik GmbH is a family owned company with around 250 employees. CWS has a powder coatings production site in Düren, Germany, and New York, United States, a solid resins production site in Düren, Germany, and a liquid resins production site in Düren and Hamburg, Germany.
New production capabilities will enable the company to locally produce and deliver bonded metallic powder coatings to its customers in North Africa. The increased demand for bonded products is being driven by the huge development in construction and growth in domestic appliance manufacturing in the region.
PCI recently traveled to the Powder Coating Summit in Lombard, Illinois, where low-temperature-cure powder coatings were a hot topic. PCI asked Dr. Robert Duan, ChemQuest president, and his colleague, Kevin Biller, to provide some background on the new trends, developments, and drivers pushing this topic to the forefront of the powder coatings industry.
BASF announced it will invest in a new world-scale Neopentyl Glycol (NPG) plant with an annual production capacity of 80,000 metric tons at its Zhanjiang Verbund site, China.
Arkema, together with a consortium of companies, is exploring and advancing the recyclability of post-consumer PET (from bottles and other plastic items) to regain monomers for reuse as raw materials for more sustainable polyester powder resins for the coating market.