In the paint and coatings industry, additives play an important role offering adhesion for paint, preventing growth of mildew and overall improving paint characteristics. Overall,  growth in 2013 was slow, and as we progress into 2014 the market itself is optimistic albeit struggling.

“Additives, particularly rheology modifiers and dispersants continued to play a key role in end-performance requirements in the paint and coatings market during 2013,” explained Amber Goodyear, marketing manager, Coatex Inc. “The outlook for 2014 remains optimistic, with eyes continuing to follow the housing market. Particularly as interest rates begin to rise and employment numbers evolve.”

Benjamin Dupnik, global segment manager, coatings, Cabot Corp., said that the market did indeed grow slowly in 2013 driven by increases in automotive production, overall industrial production and the beginnings of a rebound in the construction sector.

“Growth in developed economies remained sluggish in 2013, and this trend will likely continue in 2014,” Dupnik said. “Among BRIC economies, only China is demonstrating a favorable growth rate in the coatings market, while India and Brazil have been flat or declining. In general, the overall coatings market growth rates tend to hold true for additives as well.  The key to outperforming in the additive market is to identify and provide innovative products to the parts of the coatings market that are experiencing the fastest growth.”
Izzy Colon, VP/general manager, additives, Troy Corporation explained that the market remains competitive, with the advantage going to suppliers who offer multifunctional additives that perform the job of several products.

“The additives market in North America has experienced some improvement; Europe remains relatively flat; and Asia continues to be the growth leader,” Colon said. “Troy is in a strong position to supply these regional markets with the right technologies that offer high levels of performance, environmental responsibility, and cost efficiencies, backed by regional distribution, regulatory assistance, and accessible technical service and support.”

Eric Dumain, North American market manager, industrial coatings, Arkema Coating Resins explained that the additives market fared positively this year, driven in part by strength in North America in segments including building and construction, automotive, infrastructure spending and energy.
“2014 is expected to be another growth year as these markets continue to gradually return to pre-recession levels, and the industrial coatings markets accelerate in response to growth in durable goods orders,” Dumain said.

Laura Bittle, product manager-Americas, advanced organics, OMG Americas, Inc., said that they saw low growth in terms of additives this year.
“Globally we saw low single digit growth for additives,” Bittle said. “Growth was led by China with the Americas and Europe showing GDP growth rates.  We expect 2014 to be stronger than 2013 as the global economic uncertainty starts to improve.”

BASF said that the additives market grew globally, especially for water-based applications.
“We expect the slow global recovery to continue modest growth for 2014,” said Alex Warren, market segment manager, transportation and industrial coatings, BASF Corp.
Bruce Seeber, business line manager of paint, BYK USA Inc. said that the market started slow in 2013, due to the late spring and the delay in paint sales.
“It rebounded well through the year and was driven by a rejuvenated West Coast market. The wood coatings market was also surprisingly strong,” Seeber said. “Other markets, such as the industrial coatings market, specifically the heavy equipment and the coil segments, were flat.  Sales into the automotive market kept pace with continuing strong automotive sales.  We were very happy with the market’s interest in new technology and the increasing interest to improve performance of existing coatings technology.”
Seeber also anticipated 2014 to remain strong in the architectural coatings market due to the housing market  – both new and resale – continuing to gain momentum. 
“This should outpace the overall North American coatings industry growth,” he said. “There should also be a slight rebound for the general industrial coatings market, but this will still be slower than the rest of the coatings markets.”

Sel Avci, business development manager, Solvay Novecare Coatings said that the overall additives market for 2013 was inconsistent.
“The first half of the year got off to a slow start due to very tentative economic recovery and wet weather, which delayed the start of the paint season in the second quarter,” Avci said. “However, the market bounced back in the third and fourth quarters, suggesting a cautiously optimistic outlook for 2014. The recovery of the U.S. housing market and the improvement of the general economy is likely to lead to volume growth, most notably in the architectural coatings segment.”

This past year was difficult for the Latin American paint additives market due to a flat to slight decline in paint volumes versus the previous year. We expect the paint additives market to be flat to slightly positive in 2014. The European paint additives market was soft, largely due to poor economic conditions.  We expect it to recover very slowly into 2014 with slightly positive growth. The Asian paint additives market continues to show solid growth, but we expect it will grow slower than the double-digit growth we have seen in recent years.”

Patricia van Ee, sales development specialist, Croda, said that they have seen growth in the additives market in 2013, and this is expected to continue into 2014.
Bob Ruckle, global marketing and sales manager, Siltech Corp, said that there was a lot of activity around new formulations this year.
“This is how we typically get our products specified into coatings,” Ruckle said. “This seems to fit with the economic growth and recovery.  We expect the same in 2014.”

Latest Technologies
Goodyear said that technology being developed for rheology modifiers and dispersants have been focused on efficiency, assisting the market in transitioning to reduced VOC levels, and ensuring optimal dispersion of expensive fillers particularly TiO2.

“We are also seeing progress being made toward solving industry issues through the use of new rheology modifiers - such as improving open time and hiding,” she said.
Joe McClung, global market manager, DuPont Fluoropolymer Solutions, said that DuPont’s market surveys indicated customers want their painted surface to stay ‘new’ for as long as possible.

“Based on this feedback, we’re developing solutions to provide durable and easy cleaning properties for both interior and exterior applications,” McClung said. “Paint brands are important drivers of consumer preference.  Our new product development efforts are focusing on providing high-performance solutions to meet consumer demands.”
Troy’s development efforts continue to focus on green, multifunctional additives with VOC- and APE-free chemistry.

“Troy performance additives will continue to enable manufacturers to achieve performance objectives while lowering cost-in-use and meeting or exceeding ‘green’ standards,” Colon said. “Troy is continually developing new technologies that will help our customers to lead in their respective markets.

Griffin Gappert, new product leader, coatings specialties, Ashland Specialty Ingredients, explained that reducing VOC and ‘greening’ of formulations has led to reformulations where additives are playing an increasingly important role.

Bittle said that there is an increased emphasis on bio-based and renewable building blocks.

“There is a renewed interest in fluorine - based materials,” she said. “There is also continued interest in controlled polymer architecture by controlled radical polymerization and other techniques for dispersion and rheology modifications.”

Shailesh Shah, global strategic marketing-formulation additives, BASF Corp., said that BASF is focusing on solutions for sustainable development.
“These solutions include technologies that help reduce titanium dioxide usage, lead to reduction of critical labeling, help get the most out of organic pigments, reduce foaming in production and in application of low VOC systems and expand the usage of renewables based raw materials,“ Shah said.

Avci said that customers are looking for ways to enhance their low-to zero-VOC paints as the industry converts to environmentally friendly paints and coatings.
“Additives that deliver improved performance, efficiency or functionality continue to be in high demand,” he said. “Solvay Novecare has been working closely with its customers to design performance additives such as APE- and VOC-free emulsifiers, monomers, wetting agents, dispersants, defoamers and new multi-functional additives such as freeze-thaw and open-time extenders.”

Seeber said that in recent years, the desire for more environmentally compatible and sustainably produced additives has grown on an internationally significant scale.
“BYK is rising to these challenges with its greenability concept and presenting, with CERAFLOUR 1000, an additive with wax-like properties that is suitable for all systems, be they aqueous, radiation-curing, solvent-free or solvent-borne,” he said. “CERAFLOUR  1000 provides efficient matting and also involves a soft-touch effect. In addition, systems in which CERAFLOUR 1000 is used exhibit a high degree of transparency and improved scratch resistance.”

Ruckle commented on the silicones piece of additives space.
“Here we are working on further changes in the fundamental base polymers and understanding how these impact performance,” he explained. “ We see some of our competition doing the same, while others are not focused in the additives space.  We also see many additive formulators working with these new building blocks to make more additives.”

New Products
Solvay has launched many new products this past year. One new product is RHODOLINE OTE 500, a patented VOC-free and APE-free additive for extending open time in waterborne coatings. Rhodoline OTE 500 provides a two- to four-fold increase in open time and delivers additional benefits such as improved gloss, scrub resistance and elimination of wetting agents in waterborne architectural paints, industrial coatings, inks and adhesives. RHODOLINE FT-100 is a freeze-thaw stability additive, is a VOC-free, APE-free solution that stabilizes waterborne, soft latex-based paints upon freezing during transportation, storage or application. It addresses the latex coagulation issues of low-VOC paints based on soft binder polymers. Whether added to the binder polymer or during paint formulation, Rhodoline FT-100 provides a finished paint that passes five cycles of freeze-thaw stability. RHODOLINE ASP-100 is a new breakthough anti-settling polymer specifically designed to control the settling of heavy pigments such as iron oxides, TiO2, clays or organic pigments in waterborne coatings systems. RHODOLINE ASP-100 is especially suitable for low-viscocity paint systems, such as stains, pigment dispersions ,industrial coatings and inks systems. Lastly, SIPOMER WAME MMA25, WAME MMA50 and WAME W50 are new monomers designed for improvement of wet adhesion and scrub resistance of latex systems based on acrylic, styrene acrylic and vinyl acrylics in architectural paints.

Coatex has launched Coapur 975 W – a breakthrough technology designed specifically for zero-VOC paints.  It is a highly efficient KU builder and brings excellent color acceptance to waterborne formulations, an issue that the market has been facing when moving to zero-VOC formulations.
Another product Coatex recently launched is Coadis 144 A rutile TiO2 pigment dispersant is a universal, high performing hydrophilic copolymer, which provides outstanding performance across a broad spectrum of waterborne coating formulations. It is designed to enable maximized gloss potential, while consistently providing ideal viscosity, flow and wet adhesion across a robust range of sheens.

DuPont recently launched DuPont Capstone fluorosurfactant FS-87, which was designed to provide improved easy cleanability to interior flat paints.
A recent addition to Troy’s Z Line of performance additives is Troysol Z372, a high performance universal mar and slip additive that also offers defoaming capability. Engineered for solvent, solvent-free, and aqueous systems, Z372 improves resistance properties, gloss, and surface appearance in most systems. Z372 is well-suited for coatings and related products in which surface slip and/or resistance properties, such as block, stain, or scrub resistance, are required. Like all Troy Z Line performance additives, Z372 is a zero-VOC, HAPS-free, APE-free product formulated with renewable resources.

Troy also recently launched Troysol 382, a multifunctional, silicone-free wetting additive that promotes strong dynamic surface tension reduction in aqueous systems, resulting in excellent wetting and application characteristics. The use of Troysol 382 also promotes foam reduction and the elimination of surface defects, such as cratering, crawling, and fisheyes. The new performance-wetting additive offers coatings, inks, and adhesives formulators the ability to improve high speed application properties and gives them the flexibility to incorporate the product at any stage of the production process.

Arkema Coating Resins has developed Crayvallac LV, a new polyamide rheology modifier designed to help formulators of high solids and solvent-free epoxy and urethane coatings achieve sag resistance and anti-settling properties.

“This product expands the formulation space for polyamide rheology modifiers into higher solids systems and widens the activation temperature window, allowing for easier in-plant use in high solids systems,” Dumain said.

Ashland has launched Natrosol Performax hydroxyethylcellulose (HEC) provides Natrosol HEC performance in a form that is easier to disperse and incorporate into paint.  Customers who use HEC to thicken their paint have found Natrosol Performax enables more process flexibility and efficiency while maintaining rheology performance in the finished paint.

OMG Americas Inc. launched several products recently.  Borchi Gen 1350 – which is a water-based dispersant for transparent oxides for wood and automotive applications. Borchi Gen 1252, dispersing agent for TiO2 for both water and solvent based systems for wood, industrial and architectural applications. Borchi Gol 1375, a universal substrate wetter for water-and solvent-based clears, pigmented industrial, automotive, wood and architectural applications. Borchers AF 1171, a new universal defoamer and air release additive for waterborne, solventborne and solvent-free systems.  Application is industrial, architectural and automotive coatings as well as pigment concentrates.

BASF has launched several different additives recently. Rheovis PU 1195 a VOC-free, low to mid-shear rheology modifier based on bunched hydrophobe technology that replaces some of the most popular solvent containing NISAT KU builder rheology modifiers used in acrylic, styrene-acrylic and vinyl paints. Hydropalat WE 3111, an APEO-free, non-ionic wetting agent with very good color acceptance properties in base paints. Hydropalat WE 3500 a fluoro-polymer based surfactant designed for industrial and automotive paints where excellent leveling in combination with wetting is desired.  It offers improved leveling compared to benchmark fluoro surfactants and improved wetting compared to benchmark silicone surfactants. Hydropalat WE 3650 an APEO-free, VOC-free, 100% active wetting agent for waterbased industrial, automotive and printing ink applications.
Phil Saglimbeni, technical sales support, said that BYK USA Inc. has launched several new products.

“BYK USA Inc. launched BYK-081, fluorine-free defoamer for solvent-based and amine-neutralized systems; for use in architectural, industrial and wood coatings,” Saglimbeni said. ”We also launched, Ceraflour 917, a temperature stable wax additive with excellent shear stability for solvent-based and aqueous coating systems to achieve even surface textures; for use in coil and industrial coatings. Disperbyk-2013 a solvent-free wetting and dispersing additive for 100%, solvent-based and aqueous UV systems was also recently launched for use in UV-curable printing inks as well as industrial and wood coatings.”

Croda has released Zephrym ColorFX, a novel amine functional dispersant for high performance pigments such as carbon black, for solventborne automotive, refinish and high end industrial coatings.

Also from Croda is Crodacor OME FE, which is a novel additive that combines corrosion and flash rust protection for mild steel coatings, simplifying aqueous formulations.
Siltech Corp.’s new products are Silicone reactive silicones, which have been used in energy cured coatings for graphic arts and paper release.

“We have been focusing applications work on moving these into other coatings systems,” Ruckle said. “We have also launched some Siltech branded effective defoamer components used in waterborne coatings for a myriad of industrial coatings.  Our latest offerings are Silmer Q resins which give interesting feel and appearance properties to coatings, but we haven’t finalized this applications work yet.”