System Development/Field Test/ Commercialization

Alkyd paint from recycled plastic bottles (PET), acrylics, and soybean oil with low concentrations of VOCs. Traditional alkyd paints are made with a solvent-borne coating and constituents of the petroleum industry. PET is incorporated in a polymeric alkyd-acrylic dispersion (LAAD), which gives the paint more rigidity, hardness, and hydrolytic resistance. Acrylic decreases the drying time and increases durability. Soybean oil stimulates film formation and improves floss, flexibility, and paint cure.

Chempol® MPS paint formulations using biobased Sefose® oils. Chempol® MPS is a Sefose®-based alkyd resin technology that enables paint and coating formulation with less than half the VOCs of traditional alkyd paints and coatings. Sefose® oils are made from sugar and vegetable oil and serve as a viable alternative to petroleum-based solvents. They enable new high-performance alkyd paints with less than half the solvent. Using less hazardous solvents in paint improves worker safety, reduces indoor fumes, and improves air quality.

UV-curable, one-component, low VOC automobile paint primer. This primer is made through a new urethane acrylate oligomer primer system. The primer cures in minutes from UV light, which is ten times faster than conventional urethane technologies. The primer requires fewer preparation steps, has a lower application rate, is more durable, controls corrosion better, and has an unlimited shelf life. This automobile paint primer contains less than half the amount of VOCs in conventional primers and is diisocyanate-free (a major source of occupational asthma).

Fatty acid ester alcohol that acts as a coalescing agent and reactive diluent in alkyd and latex paints. This product is based on sustainable technology and uses renewable triglycerides (unsaturated fatty acid) as feedstock. These renewable triglycerides facilitate film formation and remain as part of the coating by incorporating the VOCs into the paint coating as fatty acid esters. The product is made by the interestification of vegetable oil fatty acid esters and propylene glycol to monoesters of the fatty acids.

Yttrium-based metal primer to resist corrosion in automobiles. Cationic electrodeposition primers provide corrosion resistance, high transfer efficiency (low waste), reliable automated application, and very low organic emissions in the automobile industry. Traditional electrocoats utilize lead salts or lead pigments to enable their high corrosion resistance properties. Using yttrium is 100 times safer than lead at typical levels of use and is more effective in preventing corrosion. Yttrium is a common element in the environment and more plentiful than lead and silver.

High-volume, non-toxic chrome plating technology for plastic parts. Interior and exterior plastic surfaces are often coated for decorative purposes. The Cromatipic® coating deposition process is free of toxic hexavalent chrome and VOCs, resulting in low emissions. Hexavalent chrome is highly toxic to humans and the environment. A CO2 cleaning process removes hydrocarbon and organic particles of various sizes. The spray lacquer does not contain any VOCs, making the VOC burn-off process unnecessary.

Decorative metallic coating for plastic parts. ePD™ is short for embedded PVD. Conventional metal coatings use chromium III and chromium VI, which are toxic to humans and the environment. This coating consists of three layers; the metallization effect is sandwiched between two layers of UV lacquer. The process is completely automated and is achieved by the INUBIA I6 and I12 systems. The first layer is the base coat. This base coat equalizes irregularities on the surface of the plastic. The inline PVD is placed on top of this base layer through magnetron sputtering in a vacuum chamber.

PFC free water-resistant down treatment. HyperDry is based in natural waxes that allow superior water-resistance performance and strength. Like conventional treatments, this technology uses hydrocarbon chains to decrease surface tension in order to make the down hydrophobic. However, HyperDry achieves this without the traditional use of PFC. Fluorinated compounds are toxic and have an extremely long half-life, making biodegradation almost impossible. This inability to biodegrade causes pollution in waterways and the ecosystem.

Safer chemical processing system in the flexographic printing industry. This new system reduces the amount of solvents needed for printing, eliminates hazardous solvents, reduces explosion potential and emissions during solvent recycling, and increases worker safety. This system includes washout solvents and reclamation/recycling machinery. All solvents can be recycled in the Cold Reclaim System™, which sustainably recycles solvents through filtration and centrifugation.

Organic pigments. Traditional heavy-metal based pigments contain lead, hexavalent chromium, or cadmium. These organic pigments replace these heavy metals with calcium, strontium, or barium. They have low potential toxicity and migration and are earth abundant. Usually, organic pigments are costly and wasteful and require hazardous manufacturing processes. However, this product's lower toxicity reduces hazards to both customers and workers and improves disposal. It also has better environmental impact and cost-to-performance values.