Revista Paint & Pintura - Edição 249

sustainability to their new products with a view to meeting customer requirements in line with market trends. “These trends were confirmed once again at the latest edition of ABRAFATI, where we were able to exchange information and experiences withour customers,whileshowinghowthe oxygenated solvents from our Solsys and Augeo lines have evolved and introducing our aromatic-free solvent program to the printing ink industry,” says Antonio Leite, global vice president of Phenol and Phenol Products and Solvents at the Solvay Group. From a market perspective, Leite has seen product sales increase with a boost from the expansion of the oxygenated solvent portfolio “The paint and coatings industry at large, as well as all other manu- facturing sectors in Brazil, continue faced with a challenging economic scenario in 2019. We have deployed several actions and initiatives with customers that have ensured us good results this year. We expect to outgrow Brazil’s GDP in terms of solvent output and sales relative to the year 2018. This is thanks to the actions we have implemented in the last few years with a view to improving our productivity and the competitiveness of our solvents.” Claudia Madrid, head of Braskem’s sol- vent business, says that Brasil has great potential, and its economic lows happen due to various reasons, so one needs to view themas growth opportunities and ti- mes tomake preparations tomeet future demands and requirements. “With that in mind, we see bright prospect for oxyge- nated solvents as the economy bounces back. It’sworth pointing out that Braskem is the world’s eighth largest chemical company, andwe supply the customers in all industries that use chemicals in Brazil.” COLORIMETRY - ACCURATE COLOR QUALITY CONTROL Today there is a great need for color me- asurement and standardization, which makes colorimetry equipment increasin- gly used, especially in the paint industry. The need and practice of measuring and standardizing colors to ensure more assertive and cost-effective processes is spreading across various industry sectors in general. This is not only the case with large companies, but it is a practice that is also being adopted by medium and small entrepreneurs, aiming at improving production through technology. “And the main reason for this is: the volume per liter of batches is decreasing and the number of batches of different colors is increasing, and this requires greater development efficiency. For example, five years ago the- rewas no talk about return on investment in small batches and overloading the area of development was common in smaller industries. But today, the competition demands development speed and quick response in custom color production. All our releases are in this direction,” says Alexandre Zerbatto, General Manager of X-Rite Pantone Brazil. For Ricardo Lovetro, CEO of Datacolor Brazil, the colorimetry segment has been growing by the year in Brazil. “Co- lorimetry today is one of the prime and most necessary investments, that enable the customer flexibility, cost and waste reduction, and quality regardless of the company size. We have served the enti- re paint market because the return on investment (ROI) is assured and fast. In addition, technology is increasingly ad- vanced and even allows communication between paint stores, development labs and themarketing department. New tools for measuring color are becoming more accessible every day.” EVENTS - ABRAFATI 2019 DRIVES INDUSTRY TOWARDS INNOVATION Thousands of professionals eager for information and innovation, 240 com- panies from various parts of the globe highlighting their best, latest solutions for the paint and coatings industry, 150 high-level technical papers being presen- ted by leading experts, and extremely high-profile figures sharing key reflections at the plenary sessions, all put together in one environment to favor interaction and networking. This is how we can sum up Abrafati 2019, which took place on October 1st through 3rd in São Paulo, whose results and effects began to arise during the show and are going to extend