Low Curing Temperature and Energy Efficient Powder Coatings

Project Information

PULVERCOAT

Grant agreement ID: 825511

DOI

10.3030/825511

Project closed

EC signature date 25 September 2018

Start date 1 October 2018

End date 31 March 2021

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 2 074 956,25

EU contribution

€ 1 452 469,38

Coordinated by

PULVERIT SPA
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - PULVERCOAT (Low Curing Temperature and Energy Efficient Powder Coatings)

Reporting period: 2019-10-01 to 2021-03-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Worldwide demand for powder coatings has increased over the last few decades based on their excellent durability and finish, easy application and low environmental impact. Thermosetting powder coatings cure between 180˚C-200˚C and need beyond 20 minutes curing depending on the resin and cross linker used. Its application takes place in big ovens (2x7m2) and the energy consumed during the curing process represents nowadays 50% of the total operational costs of the applicators, which are either coating enterprises or directly product manufacturers (OEMs). A major challenge for powder coating manufacturers is therefore to offer their customers more energy-efficient products by reducing the polymerization temperature and increasing the speed of the reaction.

Pulverit has developed PulverCoat as a disrupting coating solution that (1) enables the application of solvent free, high performance powder technology to heat sensitive substrates such as plastic and wood, substituting common liquid paints and reducing VOCs emission from the paints; and (2) reduces energy consumption and curing times of existing metal powder coating process: 3-5 minutes curing at 110ºC-130ºC will save 40-70% of total energy costs and up to 90% reduction in curing time, reducing the financial and environmental impact of this operation.

The principal objective of PulverCoat is industrializing and introducing in the powder coatings market a low curing temperature and time product.

At the technical level, the objectives of PulverCoat Phase 2 are:
(1) Further optimization of the powder coating formulation so as to improve, resistance to UV yellowing-ageing and adhesion to MDF substrates through the use of proper reactive groups or with a modification of the backbone of the resin used for the project.
(2) Achieving the most reduced pre-polymerization degree of the powder to ensure homogeneity and high quality of surface. For this purpose, a special extruder was designed in order to avoid peaks in temperature and to reduce as much as possible residential time in the extruder of the reactive phase.

The pre-commercialisation stage required reaching the following objectives:
(1) Scale-up the production of PulverCoat to reach 600 kg/h, i.e. 1,000 tons/year.
(2) Certificate our product according to Qualicoat, Qualideco, GSB International, RINA (Registro Navale Italiano) and FDA

At a commercial level, the objectives of PulverCoat are:
(1) Introduction of PulverCoat in the market by end of 2020
(2) Expanding our international scope within the EU thanks to the increase in production of our facilities
(3) Reaching wood and plastic applications in architectural, appliances, furniture and sports and leisure segments.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

At the beginning of the second year of Pulvercoat project we had already finalized the process optimization in order to prevent any pre-reaction during the preparation of Pulvercoat formula. We applied some adjustments to achieve a production target of 30 Kg (pilot line scale up) and used them to validate & optimize the Industrial Production (300 Kg and 600 Kg batches). During the second period of the project, we prepared samples taken from industrial production for Certification and Demonstration purposes.

During this first semester of the second year in the project execution, we had a big demand of resources in order to make wider the range of operational parameters without any big impact on properties of our coating and, in the meantime, ensuring a smoother production process.

Our certifications were performed in external laboratories. We did the same tests done in the first year of project in order to compare and to have a demonstration about constancy of coating properties for both materials coming from pilot plant and from industrial lines. Only one of the tests performed on our coating is still running (Florida Test) due to the extremely long exposure time (3 years of total exposure with check at the end of every year), all the other tests gave us a positive results so far.

Overview of exploitation and dissemination:
Since January 2019, we launched a dedicated website that we kept updated during all second year with news and trials: www.pulvercoat.com (.it and .eu).

In December 2020, Pulverit launched a promotional video related to the project. It has been uploaded in YouTube both in Italian and English languages. The video shows to potential customers that Pulvercoat is similar to any other powder during the application phases but it is extraordinary versus competitors regarding the curing condition (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8Wxgw2O9Do).

We advertised Pulvercoat in specific magazines as Verniciatura Industriale No 613 (May 2019), No 629 (September 2020), No 631-632 (November-December 2020) and No 633 (January 2021) and IPCM No 65 (January 2020), No 66 (November-December 2020) and No 67 (January-February 2021).

European Convention for Constructional Steelwork (ECCS) presented PulverCoat in various meetings of ECCS technical committees to international experts in steel construction. There is also a permanent advertisement on ECCS Homepage. Articles and advertisements have been publicated in the Journal “Steel Construction Design and Research”.

We prepared promotional material that will be distributed by the end of March 2021, this consists in a color swatches collection call anodizzati made with Pulvercoat product.

During the second year of the PulverCoat project, despite the difficulties created by Covid 19 we have developed several dissemination activities focused in the strength of the exploitation goals of the company, we changed several time our program and moved our effort to activities less affected by the pandemic situation. We are going on time with our plan for Commercialization and Exploitation and several marketing plans for different countries have been created. The results indicate that PulverCoat has innovative features creating a lot of interest in several different markets and customers. The industrial trials are promising, we have three customers ready to start, we are confident that their conversion to our product will be a breakthrough in the commercialization of PulverCoat.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

PulverCoat is a disrupting coating solution that enables to extend the application of solvent free, high performance powder technology also to heat sensitive substrates such as plastic and wood, substituting common liquid paints and reducing VOCs emission from paints.

We expect PulverCoat to have a significant impact on various aspects:

(1) Industry: Pulvercoat solve the problem of surface appearance of standard textured powder coating products that usually have big variation linked to type of application, distance between guns and substrate, geometry of the substrate, application thickness, curing cycle. With textured Pulvercoat products the final surface appearance is always the same despite different application technologies.

(3) Society: reduction of VOC emissions due to the use of Pulvercoat instead of liquid paint and powder coating.

(4) Company: the benefit Pulverit will obtain from PulverCoat’s market uptake is to double the actual turn over by the end of 2025; it means to add other 5.000 tons at the actual production of 10.000 tons. Moreover, we forecast to add 25% job positions in Pulverit by 2025.

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