With the landing of the consumption tax on paints, the central and local governments' environmental protection policies have been stepped up in 2017, and "environmental protection" has made Chinese paint companies feel the pressure of imminent transformation. As one of the environmentally friendly solutions, "water-based" has become the direction of transformation for most paint companies due to its wide applicability. How to help the traditional industrial paint enterprises to transform to water-based, the 2017 Lianzhong University Water-based Industrial Paint System Course provides a more operational and practical "runner" training for paint enterprises around the country. On July 28th, Lianzhong University of Coatings closed its Guangdong campus, echoing the Chongqing and Tianjin campuses, providing public welfare technical training for more than 400 paint companies in South China, Southwest China and North China respectively, and helping China's industrial paint transition and exploration in "oil to water".

"Oil-to-water" conversion is imminent, but the technology is limited and difficult to transform

        Industrial paint in China accounts for more than 60% of the paint industry, and the traditional solvent-based industrial paint still occupies a dominant position. Some data show that China's paint coating industry to the atmosphere each year the total emissions of volatile organic compounds of about 4.3 million tons, of which the paint accounted for about 98%. With the government's heavy-handed control of environmental pollution, national environmental awareness and changes in consumer behavior, energy-saving and environmentally friendly water-based industrial paints are ushering in unprecedented development opportunities.

        However, the rapid rise of water-based industrial paints at the same time, relying only on the support of national policy does not make the coating business "oil to water" smooth sailing, but rather make many small and medium-sized enterprises face a life and death test. Some of the enterprises can not withstand the pressure, has been in a closed state; there is a part of enterprises are in the "oil to water" transition edge.

        The lack of mature technology is the key factor that restricts China's industrial paint "oil to water" at present. But in the view of Lianzhong University of Coatings, "technology" actually includes: "material technology" and "formulation technology" two levels. The upgrade and transformation of coating technology is not only a test of the R & D strength of coating manufacturers, but the realization of technology is often inseparable from materials. The new water-based products of material enterprises, especially the development of resin technology, are the basis to help "oil to water". 

Course upgrade, help SMEs "oil to water"

        Under such an opportunity, this year, Lianzhong University of Coatings upgraded and launched the water-based industrial paint course. Ltd., Zhanxin Resin (Shanghai) Co., Evonik Specialty Chemicals (Shanghai) Co. "Food".

        And in the process of communication with the enterprises participating in this course, the reporter of Lianzhong coating network found that unlike previous years, which still stayed in trying raw materials and figuring out the development of water-based formulations, the industrial paint enterprises participating in the course already had a certain production scale and came to the course mainly to improve the technical ability of water-based industrial paint R&D and improve formulations.

        As a "veteran" lecturer in 2015 and 2017, Mr. Sheng Hong, application technology director of Foshan Gaoming Tongde Chemical Co. Two years ago, many small and medium-sized enterprises were just starting out, and our course focused on helping participants sort out basic material knowledge. In this year's course, we had an in-depth communication with the Institute of University of Coatings, and we decided to arrange some practical application case studies. We decided to share with our students the problems and solutions we encountered in the process of water-based solutions. At this stage, solving practical problems is the primary issue that our lecturer group can help the students."

        Market demand and technology update always go hand in hand, which is the main reason why Lianzhong University of Coatings upgraded the course content this year. Since its establishment in 2013, Lianzhong University of Coatings has been adhering to the tenet of "go to business, high quality and free tuition" to meet the technical development needs of coating enterprises around the world and help each coating enterprise to progress.
 
Doing well in water-based market needs benign competition guidance

        Although China has been gradually applying water-based industrial paint technology in the fields of automobiles, railroad vehicles, bridges and pipelines, steel structures, containers and so on. However, the industrial paint market has more market segments that have not been developed. For small and medium-sized paint enterprises, under the changing environment, enterprises should use the "desire to survive" as the driving force for their development. In the transformation process of "oil to water", paint companies can choose to locate in a niche market and make their products and services in a certain niche area.

        However, to replace oil-based coatings with water-based coatings, in addition to the upgrading of product formulations and performance guarantees, not only the original production line needs to be transformed, but also to seek breakthroughs in the promotion and application of the process. For many paint companies, it is indeed a challenge.

        In the course of water-based industrial paint system, Lianzhong University of Coatings provides a better communication platform for all industrial paint engineers. In addition to the lecturer with senior experience to bring you sharing, students can also interact with the lecturer on the problems they encountered in the process of developing formulations, as well as technical exchanges with enterprises in the same industry to develop and progress together.

        After the class, a participant said in an interview with the reporter: "We are a solvent-based to water-based company. In the past, we could only rely on the accumulation of experience, and we had to fill in every 'pit' in water-based, and took a lot of detours. United Coatings University gave us an opportunity to learn systematically. It's really a timely rain for me and our current water-based project development!" . A participant from Guangdong said, "In the field of waterborne, we are all in the starting stage, and the gap between companies is not too big. Whether we do formulation development or service to customers, technical support is a very important factor. This year's lecturer group from Lianzhong University of Coatings has given us a sense of understanding of technology from the raw material supplier's perspective. This is very helpful to us."
 
        Mr. Guo Xiaojie, president of United Paint University, said: there are two camps in the army of water-based industrial paint: one is the traditional solvent-based to water-based, and the other is the transformation of architectural coatings to do water-based. "At present, water-based industrial paint research and development mainly has two orientations: price and performance. We need to balance, need to game. But for a new product application, we should think more about performance, and not just rely on cost compression, prematurely trapped in price competition. Immature water-based industrial paint products flowing to the market, which is the development of enterprises and the product itself is the practice of killing the chicken to get the eggs, but also affect the overall development of the whole industrial paint water-based."


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