Clariant organizes Coatings Technical Seminar in Kolkata

01 Jun '09

3 min read

In a step to become more service driven towards its customers, the Pigments and Additives Division of Clariant Chemicals (India) Limited organized a Technical Seminar on “Latest Trends in Coatings Industry” jointly with the Indian Paint Research Center at its Salt Lake Campus in Jadavpur University, Kolkata on May 21, 2009.

This seminar was aimed at providing information on the current issues, problems and requirements of the Coating Industry and the solutions that our Pigments and Additives Division could provide. The key areas of the seminar were:

• Replacement of Lead Chrome based pigments by eco-friendly organic pigments in consonance with product safety aspects related to pigments for coating applications.
• Information on the new range of Easy Dispersible pigments.
• Pigment Preparations for solvent based Industrial Coatings.

Besides, Mr. Anil Khanna, Chairman of IPA, Eastern Region and Mr. Subrato Banerjee, Deputy Director of CII, there were around 40 participants, both from big companies and SME sector.

Dr. M.B. Guha, Director of Indian Paint Research Center and Mr. Kalyan Ghosh (Sr. Regional Manager, Clariant Chemicals - Kolkata) in their inaugural speech welcomed all the delegates while highlighting the importance of this technical seminar.

Mr. Ravi Vaidya, Head-Pigments and Additives Division in India, explained that reliability, service and support are the key USPs that Clariant brings to its markets. The main focus is to offer products that are in accordance with special regulations regarding product safety aspect such as heavy metal content, etc. Mr. Vaidya also informed that being a socially responsible company, Clariant has initiated the process of spreading awareness amongst the customers to use safe organic pigments as replacement of Lead Chrome pigments.

Dr. Neeti Kaushik (Head-Tech Service-Coatings Business) in her presentation highlighted that because of environmental hazards, Clariant never had chrome pigments in its product range. Of course, now due to increasing ESHA regulations and stricter environmental norms by the Indian Government, the market is slowly moving towards chrome free replacement. Dr. Kaushik also informed that Clariant in India's approach is to match the 'RAL', 'BIS' and other popular shades by using synthetic organic pigments in place of lead chrome pigments and illustrated a few guideline formulations with products like Novoperm Yellow HR 70, Hansa Brilliant Yellow 2GX70, Hansa Yellow G, Hostaperm Green GNX L, etc.

The participants were also informed about the newly introduced 'Easy Dispersible' (ED) range of pigments which can be dispersed using high speed dissolver without any milling process. This saves valuable time, energy and manpower. These pigments also do not require additional dispersant in the paint formulation. ED grade pigments are recommended only for solvent based applications. Dr. Kaushik also highlighted on the solvent based environment friendly pigment preparations i.e. - Hostatint A 100, which can be stirred into virtually all types of industrial finishes.

This technical seminar concluded with a very enthusiastic Q&A session.

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