Hello and welcome to your early week international coatings industry update, brought to you by SpecialChem. In this issue, we have financials, deals and important research news regarding wet coated OLED arrays. The future is here, so let's get started.
Jotun recorded a nine per cent growth in operating revenues in the first four months of 2012 as sales increased both in volume and value terms. In the first four months of 2012 the Jotun Group recorded operating revenues of NOK 3784 million, up from NOK 3482 million in the same period last year. The group's profit for the period rose to NOK 295 million, from NOK 261 million in the first four months of 2011.
Key operational highlights include sales growth in all four divisions and excellent results for Paints division in the Middle East and South East Asia. Results improved for the decorative and powder coatings divisions but reduced in the coatings division, with improved gross margins. Jotun also opened a new state-of-the art factory in Sandefjord, Norway during this financial period.
In research news, Mitsubishi Chemical and Pioneer Corporation announce that they have successfully developed organic light emitting diode (OLED) elements using wet coating process for the light-emitting layers, and have agreed to set up a testing facility in order to establish mass production technology.
The best way to inexpensively mass-produce panels (with large surface areas and uniform light-emitting surfaces.) with as few imperfections as possible is to manufacture panels using a process known simply as "wet coating". In particular, there is growing demand to use the wet coating process to manufacture light-emitting layers from high-end materials, in order to significantly improve the performance of OLED lighting panels. Mitsubishi Chemical and its research and development subsidiary Mitsubishi Chemical Group Science and Technology Research began a joint project in January 2010 with Pioneer to develop OLED lighting panels with a simple single-unit structure using the wet coating process.
In facilities news, the Performance Products division of Huntsman Corporation announced that it has completed the expansion of its specialty amines manufacturing facility in Llanelli Wales. This expansion has increased capacity by more than 50%, primarily for Jeffamine polyetheramines, Diglycolamine Agent (DGA Agent) and morpholine.
Stu Monteith, President of Huntsman Performance Products said: "Our existing global network of plants for these products is further strengthened by this successful expansion, which will continue to ensure that Huntsman remains strategically ahead of the demand curve for years to come." In addition to Llanelli, Huntsman also supplies these products from the United States (Port Neches and Conroe, Texas) and Singapore, with previously announced plans to build a plant in Saudi Arabia.
In certification news, Swiss chemicals company Lonza Group AG said Tuesday that it had received approval from the U.S Environmental Protection Agency for the use of its copper Omadine Antimicrobial as an agent to deter the growth of algae and other foulants on ships.
The registration covers the product's use in marine hull paints that are applied by licensed applicators on U.S. vessels that are 25 or more meters in length.
"This registration means our customers can now provide their latest antifouling paint technology in the United States," said Robert Martin, Global Strategic Marketing Manager for Lonza Microbial Control's Marine Antifouling Paint business. He added: "Many of the new self-polishing paints contain copper Omadine Antimicrobial, the most widely used co-biocide in the world for marine antifouling paint applications. With this registration, copper Omadine Antimicrobial is now approved for use in all major shipbuilding regions."
Lonza is a global supplier of antifouling agents for use on ships' hulls and in protective coatings on nets used in fish farms. In addition to copper Omadine Antimicrobial, the company's antifouling paint product line also includes the zinc Omadine Antimicrobial, as well as self-polishing polymer technology and products.
We don't often think of Iran as a technological innovator, but the simple fact is that when it comes to nanotechnology, they are among the leaders if the world. It was announced this week that Iran's historical city of Isfahan has started using traffic nano paints produced by Reef Iran Chemical Industry Complex in the runways of its international airport.
The nano paints produced by the Iranian company have already been used in the traffic lining of streets in the city of Tehran.
According to the head of Machinery Organization of Iran Airports Company, traffic nano paints produced by Reef Iran Company were used in Runway No 2 of Martyr Beheshti International Airport of Isfahan in the second half of 2011. Since that time, some problems have been solved including light reflection from the ground, short period of paint stability on the surface, being dirty, opaqueness of the runway surface, and the lack of sufficient sight for airplane landing.
"The runways are usually repainted every three months in crowded airports," Asqar Hosseini said about the depreciation of paint in airports. "During the landing of airplanes, tires are warmed due to the friction between the tire and the ground, and some part of the tire sticks to the ground during the melting process. This fact gradually results in the opaqueness of the runway, and it decreases the sight of the pilot for the identification of runway lines," he added.
According to Mr. Hosseini, traffic nano paints increase the period of repainting, and therefore, they reduce the expenses.
Traffic nano paints are more resistant against scratch and abrasion in comparison with cold traffic paints. Therefore, they have more lifetime and higher performance. In addition, such paints are able to compete with other common paints in the market in regard with price and improved properties.
In new product news, Acktar announced completion of its preparations for the industrial scale production of foils coated with its Metal Velvet™ ultra-absorbing black coating for use over the entire spectrum from the EUV through the FIR. This light blocking material can now be obtained in running-meters.
Ram Magril - Chief of the Roll Coating Department at Acktar's Kiryat-Gat factory - said: "Our mission was to ensure that this high-performance coating would be as accessible as a can of black paint while maintaining the unique and outstanding optical performance of Acktar's directly-applied black coatings. With specular absorptance as high as 99.99% and its wide-band performance, Acktar's Metal Velvet coated light-absorbing foil is by far the best stray-light and scattered-light absorbing / suppressing material available to optical engineers."
Dr. Helmut Erhart, Head of ACM Coatings GmbH, Acktar's subsidiary in Germany, says: "This is a real challenge to the industry - mass production of such low reflectivity material not only enables reasonable pricing for industrial consumers, but also sets a new standard for the entire optics industry."
Metal Velvet - developed by Acktar scientists several years ago - may be the "blackest" inorganic material on earth with a total hemispherical reflectance under 1% across the entire EUV to FIR range. The coating shares with other Acktar high emissivity coatings a unique list of attributes - including ultra-high-vacuum compatibility, extremely low outgassing and high thermal stability from 4-623 degrees K - which makes them eminently suitable in a wide variety of application areas - terrestrial, airborne and satellite-borne optical systems. Examples are: Telescope housings and baffles, light shields and cold shields for IR detectors; optical packaging; laser systems; inspection systems; medical devices; instrumentation; and passive thermal management - among others.
An attribute of Acktar Black coatings, which is critical in the laser industry and in UV optics for the semiconductor industry, is its very high damage threshold. By comparison, it is advantageous to use Acktar coated foils over standard commercial flock papers and black fabric / applique, which cannot endure laser. Dr. Klaus Mann, Head of the Optics Department at Laser-Laboratorium-Göttingen in Germany measured the LIDT in the EUV of Acktar coatings and wrote "It is really on the high side, even higher than fused silica or CaF2."
Acktar Advanced Coatings was established in 1994 in Kiryat Gat, Israel. Acktar's core competence is the development and manufacture of high specific surface area coatings and its main products are extremely black optical coatings. The optical coatings can be deposited directly on virtually any substrate material and can achieve absorptance (specular) of above 99% in the UV, VIS and IR spectra. Acktar's coating processes are totally environmentally friendly and the coatings are in use by leading companies throughout the world in applications such as optical equipment, IR sensors / systems, aerospace systems and solar thermal absorbers. Acktar subsidiaries are located in Germany (ACM Coatings GmbH) and in Japan.
In other deals, Nordson Corp. announced Monday, June 4, that it has acquired plastics delivery component maker Xaloy Superior Holdings Inc. from San Francisco private equity firm Industrial Growth Partners for $200 million. Nordson said it would finance the deal with an available $250 million credit facility with PNC Bank NA.
Nordson will fold the target into its adhesive dispensing systems segment. It expects the acquisition to be accretive in its first full year of ownership. The deal should close in about 30 days, pending customary closing conditions and regulatory reviews. The deal comes about two weeks after Nordson bought coating and dye maker EDI Holdings Inc., also for $200 million.
"Xaloy is indeed part of a strategy with EDI in that both of these companies are in the flexible package plastic processing space," said Nordson spokesman James R. Jaye. "Both of these companies are part of what's called the plastic processing melt stream, when you're taking resins and plastics, and melting them into layers, and extruding them into flexible packaging materials."
New Castle, Pennsylvania, USA.-based Xaloy was founded in 1929 as Industrial Research Laboratories in Los Angeles and moved east in 1963. It manufacturers plastic injection moldings components, including bimetallic barrels, engineered screws, melt pumps, screen changers, heat transfer rolls, valves and nozzles.
Xaloy entered western Pennsylvania 2003 by buying New Castle Industries Inc. for $17 million from heavy-duty manufacturing business Ampco-Pittsburgh Corp. Xaloy has operations in Germany and Thailand, as well as the United States. IGP bought Xaloy in October 2008 from Chicago-based Baird Capital Partners for an undisclosed price. Baird itself acquired the company in March 2004.
Finally, the U.S. Navy is investing in research that could make its submarines even stealthier, using cloaking technology that seems to come straight out of a Tom Clancy thriller or Star Trek script.
Developed by New York-based Weidlinger Associates with U.S. Navy Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding, the technology involves the carving up and altering of aluminum to give it "elastic properties" - a form of what the company calls "metal water," according to Jeffrey Cipolla, a Weidlinger senior associate.
The underwater acoustic-evading technology for submarines and unmanned undersea vehicles, now in SBIR Phase II development, creates a coating that features broadband, passive waveguides, which redirect acoustic energy around an object, "rendering it nearly undetectable" to active sonar, the company says.
The coatings also "decouple" structural vibrations from the water, the company says, reducing passive sonar signature. The cloak "suppresses all scatters and reflected waves", Cipolla said June 4 during a presentation at the Navy's annual Opportunity Forum in Arlington, Virginia.
The company carves up aluminum along hexagonal lines and creates a cylindrical cloak from the hexagonal cell structure, he says. The resulting cloak is a heavy garment for the sub, and the Navy will have to accept that idea, Cipolla says, if it wants to pursue this technology.
"Any cloak technology worth its salt is going to be heavy," he says, adding that there will be no "spray-on coating." He says, "It's going to be a structure that has to be attached to the sub."
In other news, riding on last year's success in Paris, Eurocoat is opening its doors from the 2 to 4 October 2012 for 3 days of trading at the Palau de Congressos in Barcelona. Now in its 35th year, Eurocoat has become a historic event in the coating industry, bringing together manufacturers and distributors of paint, printing inks, varnish, glue and adhesive...more
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Sun Chemical reinforced its commitment to customers in Montreal and the Province of Quebec with the opening of its new state-of-the-art ink manufacturing plant in Laval, a $3.1 million (CAD) investment designed to provide stronger customer service, improve efficiency, and reduce costs...more
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Perstorp announced the transactional closing and set up of the joint venture with Thailand's largest chemical producer PTT Global Chemical for the manufacturing and sales of products for the polyurethane industry. PTT Global Chemical holds 51% and Perstorp 49% of the new joint venture, named VENCOREX™ Holding...more
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And finally, PPG Industries' automotive refinish operations in China recently relocated to a plant in Songjiang, Shanghai. PPG executives, together with nearly 200 guests from leading automotive aftermarket companies, automotive manufacturers, automotive dealers, PPG suppliers, PPG authorized distributors and partner schools, attended the relocation ceremony...more
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