Coating companies bet on smart coatings

What is smart coating? The generally accepted definition is that “materials with one or more properties can be significantly changed in a controlled manner by external stimuli, including anti-corrosion, self-adjusting, self-cleaning, self-healing and other coatings.
”When it was first launched At the time, smart coatings were considered new products, and there was almost no possibility of commercialization in the short term.
Facts have proved that this is not the case.
After just over ten years, this situation was broken.
In the past ten years or so, the speed of change and innovation in the smart field has been so amazing that smart coatings can now be used in automobiles, construction, consumer electronics and other applications every day, penetrate into all aspects of our lives, and continue to improve people’s lives.
Including: easy-to-clean, anti-fingerprint and anti-glare coatings for transparent touch screens and displays; super-hydrophobic, easy-to-clean coatings for sensors and camera cover lenses used in autonomous vehicles; aircraft windshield deicing coatings; As well as solar thermal management coatings for airplanes, etc.
One of the main trends driving the development of smart coating technology is the continued demand for higher performance-to extend product life and reduce maintenance, improve energy efficiency, and cope with the transformation of the base layer to composite materials and new lightweight materials such as aluminum and AC.
At the same time, the health, environmental and other related regulatory restrictions on additives and chemicals, coupled with advances in polymer chemistry and technology, have also promoted the advancement of smart coating technology.
With the passage of time and technological progress, smart coatings have become more functional, such as: photochromic/thermochromic/electrochromic coatings applied on transparent glass or plastic will change the color and spectrum according to appropriate stimuli Transmission characteristics: The silver ion antibacterial coating releases silver ions through ion exchange with the cell wall of microbial contaminants.
The emergence of these new generation coatings has begun to occupy a place in the field of smart coatings.
Increasing market participation.
  All these trends indicate that smart coatings (and smart materials more generally) will become important business opportunities in the future.
Some large companies have invested heavily in this area.
These companies include not only paint companies, but also large glass companies and other companies upstream and downstream of the supply chain.
  As early as 2017, Evonik announced plans to develop a new type of coating that will make the hull “invisible” to microorganisms and protect it from biofilms, algae, and shellfish.
The research it conducts is not limited to marine coatings, but also includes intelligent coatings such as antifreeze coatings, antibacterial coatings, and dust-proof surfaces.
  Akzo Nobel in the coatings industry has also successfully developed self-healing automotive repair coatings, intelligent antifouling coatings and antibacterial coatings.
At the same time, PPG is developing various multifunctional transparent coatings for interactive screens, displays and other surfaces in modern vehicles.
Moreover, the coatings developed by PPG may be used as conductive and shielding components for vehicle electronic equipment and help OEMs reduce costs and weight by eliminating wires and mechanical connections.
  In addition to PPG, Akzo Nobel, and Evonik, coatings and raw materials companies such as BASF, Sherwin-Williams, Jotun, RPM, Haihong, Axalta, Dow, 3M and Eastman are participating in the smart coatings market.
Currently, Europe has the largest smart coating market, followed by North America and the Asia-Pacific region.
  There are also some domestic coating companies focusing on the field of smart coatings, and Jiangsu Chenguang Coatings is one of them.
According to the news sent some time ago, Chenguang is building a new workshop for smart color-changing paint.
In this field, Chenguang has launched an intelligent color-changing light film, which uses a patented technology to mix dielectric anisotropic nanoparticles with special prepolymers to make a uniform and stable intelligent color-changing coating film.
This product is suitable for all kinds of glass.
It has the effects of sound insulation, heat insulation, explosion-proof, and beautiful appearance.
It can control the transparent and opaque state of the glass at any time.
It can play the role of screen projection, heat insulation and sun shading outside the window, replacing traditional shading media.
Challenges in the future   So far, the most important challenge in the development of smart coatings is still how to improve their functionality, durability and expand the commercial application market.
The coating application methods and curing mechanisms currently available on the market, environmental, health and safety regulations related to the target* end-use market, and unavoidable cost constraints will all affect the promotion of the smart coating application market.
  Due to the long service life of automobiles and harsh environmental conditions, these obstacles in the automobile industry are sometimes greater than those in other industries.
External automotive coatings need to withstand various environments (ultraviolet rays, heat, humidity) and physical conditions for a long time.
Easy-to-clean and other functional automotive coatings also face extreme challenges (wear, high temperature, chemicals, humidity, etc.
) for many years.
In addition, adding functionality to the coating usually increases costs.
For most applications, coating companies must balance the improvement of functionality with the increased cost.
  Judging from the current situation, the smart coating industry needs to give priority to continue to expand its application in the mainstream coatings market.
As with all technologies in the early stages, the key to solving the problem is to jointly develop the market by the upstream and downstream industrial chains.
If so, many technologies that are only interesting research projects now will enter the mainstream coating application field in the near future.