Revista Paint & Pintura - Edição 234

CLIPPING 10 | PAINT&PINTURA | Julho 2018 representative in Brazil. In 2007, while the first employee was hired for this business, we still didn’t have a factory then. So we would import Expancel and resell it. Addi- tional employees were gradually hired over time, as this business grew. We also have professionals at work in Colombia, Argentina, and Mexico. The year 2015 saw the start of our local expansion, as we began importing raw material fromour Sweden headquarters into our Jundiaí production plant for processing. By the end of this year, we’re going to be a total of six employees working on this business in our region, where we also have several distributors,” says Latin America market manager Gun- ther Zaremba. The microspheres come from Sweden unexpanded, and only upon arrival at the Jundiaí plant are they expanded and then provided to customers, according to Zaremba. “We have a piece of equipment that adds heat to the mi- crosphere, which then expands. We also supply unexpan- ded microspheres to a variety of customers, depending on the type of application, meaning that where heat is already there as part of the manufacturing process, we don’t need to expand our microspheres before delivering themto that customer. In the paint and coatings industry, for example, there’s no temperature rise in the process, so we need to expand our microspheres at our plant.” RAW MATERIALS - SOLVAY USES VIRTUAL REALITY TO CREATE SUSTAINABLE SOLVENTS The use of new technologies like virtual reality can go far beyond a mere form of individual entertainment. So states Solvay by employing this resource in their develo- pment of novel oxygenated solvent solutions designed for use in a variety of markets, such as paints, varnishes and other coatings for the automotive, construction, industrial maintenance, wood treatment and finishing, and packaging printing segments, among others. A supplier of oxygenated solvents and ethanol, acetone and glycerin products to customers in various industry segments, Solvay decided to take the next step and embrace the VR technology to enhance its NG Solsys program, which is the company’s groundbreaking pla- tform for developing new solutions in conjunction with customers, according to solvent researcher Diana Tosto. “NG Solsys is used to simulate the solubility behavior of any given substance in different solvent systems, and it’s underpinned by the Hansen Solubility Parameters theory - dD, dP, dH - and the use of three-dimensional elliptical models. But onemajor challenge in the resulting predictions lies in evaluating three-dimensional graphs on a computer screen. And that’s what led us to come up with the idea of using new tools and new technologies like VR.” Diana says that the virtual reality-enabled NG Solsys, which is known as Solsys VR, displays a fraction of the information stored on the original database, allowing users to view and interact with the solubilization models of different polymers and various solvents, which makes for an easier solubilization systems validation experience. “Solsys VR will streamline the development of new applications for solvent systems, which in turn will deliver direct benefits to our customers,” she concludes. INDUSTRY IN THE SPOTLIGHT - ALESSI CELEBRATES 10 YEARS WITH PROJECTED TWO-DIGIT GROWTH Focusing on the decorative paint market, Tintas Alessi started out in 2008 in the town of Mandirituba, Paraná, and today has a strong business presence in Brazil’s South region, which con- sists of the states of Paraná, Santa Catarina, and Rio Grande do Sul. As its brand grows, though, the company is already extending that presence to the country’s all other regions. Alessi currently boasts per-shift capacity of two million liters of paint per month. In 2018, Alessi has become a 10-year-old company in 2018, but it has been no cake walk getting here. In order to consolidate itself in the marketplace, it had to overcome a variety of challenges, not unlike many other businesses in what has been such an unstable economy. Because Alessi is a relatively new brand, it has been that much more of a bumpy ride for them, but, in spite of all that, they were able to strategically analyze the marketplace so as to seize opportunities. Now Alessi is pursuing a target of as much as two-digit growth in sales by the end of this year. With that in mind, its sales team has reached out and gained customers in new regions, both domestically and internationally. As part of its ongoing development, the company felt the need to make new investments in operating systems to streamline all of its processes, from production to delivery of orders placed by customers. “We’re already operating with this new system. We did the transition around the end of last year. For 2018, as we’re going for a two-digit growth rate, we have focused much of our investments on buying new machinery, launching products, and expanding our vertical inventory sys- tem. As the Alessi brand keeps growing and gaining ground in themarketplace by the day, we have already realizedwe need to further expand. To that end, our board is already looking into another construction project for a newplant in an owned location. The entire investment is intended to help us be the best team and provide the best service in our market,” says Alessi marketing analyst Fabiana Cristóvão.