Which markets are mostly water-borne (besides architectural), and which ones will shift further towards water-borne coatings?

Andre van Linden: Water-borne coatings are prominent in the decorative coatings sector and continue to expand globally. Historically used for wall paints and decorative wood products, their use is now increasingly extending to trim and steel protection.

As a result, water-borne coatings are being used in applications with higher performance requirements, particularly in industrial wood coatings. They are also becoming increasingly important in the automotive and automotive refinish industries. In addition to water-borne coatings, solvent-free or ultra-high solids formulations are also gaining traction due to the demand for low VOC and low carbon footprint coatings.
As technology advances, the opportunities and subsequent demand for powder coatings as a water-borne alternative are also increasing. In several industrial applications, such as in the glass sector, the shift to powder coatings is driven by their fast processing, reduced emissions, and high recyclability.

Will there be problems or opportunities as a result of the stricter biocide regulations?

van Linden: It could be an interesting discussion to understand the pros and cons of the value of BPR under REACH – both aim to improve safety and product performance and prevent any threat from people and the environment. They are equally important.

However, they have quite adverse outcomes when separate demands overlap. Additional test requirements may adversely affect innovation predictability and make innovation more difficult. The additional data requirements for BPR, for example, and the moving goalposts during the lengthy review processes mean a huge barrier to market for new technologies such as in-can preservation or substrate protection.
Where wood is being promoted as a sustainable building material for various reasons, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find good protection against biocidal attack. Discussions about protective measures (such as gloves) when using in-can preservation are obvious and need to be pursued. But they do not address the fundamental problem of the lack of novel ways to protect water-borne products, especially considering the above-mentioned market shift to water-borne products.