www.paintshow.com.br
16
Julho 2010
PAINT & PINTURA
pany has adhered to the system,
it gets a Prodir Applicant status
and has a period of 18 months to
implement the Codes and Prac-
tices. “Upon conclusion of the
implementation of the Codes and
Practices, a document check is
conducted where the company
is required to submit all of the
related documentation to an inde-
pendent unit registered with Asso-
ciquim for examination,” Medrano
informs.
If the documentation is found to
be properly prepared, any non-
conformities eliminated, and the
Prodir standards duly implemen-
ted, then a visit to the company
is scheduled for a date within no
more than 90 days for the rele-
vant independent certifying entity
to conduct a local check. “In order
for a company to be Prodir-certi-
fied, it needs to meet the require-
ments of all Codes and Practices,
as well as the regulations, which
is verified by the document review
and the local check which is con-
ducted at the company’s site,” says
Medrano, adding that the period
for implementation and certifica-
tion is 18 months, commencing at
the time of adherence.
The Responsible Distribution
Codes and Practices are being
harmonized in the Americas
thanks to an agreement signed by
the industry’s associations in the
United States, Canada, Mexico
and Brazil during the period of Dr.
Rubens Medrano as president of
Associquim-Sincoquim and of the
International Council of Chemi-
cal Trade Associations (ICCTA),
a global entity responsible for
coordinating the chemical trade
and distribution associations of
each country.
Plastic Packaging - Green light
Plastic packaging material beco-
me more important in the paint
and coatings industry each day.
This is mainly to the technological
breakthroughs introduced by ma-
nufacturers to make their packa-
ging materials safe, high-quality
products.
According to plastic packaging
manufacturers, using packaging
materials that they produce as
substitutes for others like card-
board and metal is a world trend.
One of the main reasons for that
is the ability to reuse them, which
adds to other well-known bene-
fits, such as lower transportation
costs when empty and greater
shock resistance, which reduces
breakage rates in the process.
Specifically in the paint and
coatings industry, the con-
sumption of plastic packaging
materials has increased signifi-
cantly over the past few years,
especially due to the quality
of the plastic used in terms of
packaging efficiency and looks,
and it tends to keep on gro-
wing.
According to Enilton Nunes, direc-
tor at Fada Plásticos, the increa-
sed demand has made paints and
coatings a spin-off from the line of
packaging for chemicals. “The de-
mand for safe packaging materials
and responsibility has made the
product very attractive to com-
panies that master the resins and
processing technologies of those
blown and injected containers.”
Polyester Resins
Sustainable innovation
Polyester resins are key compo-
nents in paints for metallic packa-
ging materials, coil coatings and
powder coatings, which means
that they are used in the formula-
tion of various types of coatings.
They are used to manufacture
plastic mortars and polyesters,
UV-curing systems and metallo-
graphic coatings. They consist of
a type of polymer than can impart
exceptional characteristics to the
formulation, such as resilience,
chemical and mechanical streng-
th, great weathering resistance
and improved printing and coa-
ting quality, while reducing costs.
Resins can be considered the su-
pport for the pigment in a paint
formulation. They are responsi-
ble for the paint adhesion to the
surface to which it is applied,
forming the coating film.
Evolution won’t stop in the field
of polyester resins. The highlights
are hybrid systems, which are hy-
brid polymers that either enhance
performance or keep it up with
improved cost-effectiveness. They
are also in line with the trend to-
wards high-solids, low-VOC resins,
which are excellent in terms of
both cost and quality, while mee-
ting environmental requirements
for reduced solvent contents.
There is also a trend towards
sophisticated packaging materials
with innovative, complex structu-
ral configurations, and saturated
polyester resins play a major role
in this field due their outstanding
resilience and adhesion properties.
These products must be viewed as
the result of a substantial effort
of the chemical industry for im-
provement in human health and
the environment. A while back
the European Community pas-
sed important legislation in this
direction, which sets both current
and future parameters for VOCs.
A number of systems are now
based on a new, modern series of
synthetic resins for paints. The
technical principles for these pro-
ducts include as sharp as possible
a dilution curve with different
solvents, an application behavior
that this closer to products more
currently in use, compatibility
with several isocyanurates (Uro-
nal NL, Uronal B55, Uronal P75,