Sun Chemical has opened a new 11,000 square foot coatings lab in its Carlstadt, N.J. research and development facility. This is the fourth such lab, with others located in the United Kingdom and DIC R&D centers in Japan. It should give the company a good understanding of global regulations and manufacturing practices.
The new facility will be used for things such as studying migration, adhesion, permeability and other performance-related coating phenomena. It also offers SEM microscopy, atomic force microscopy, IR surface mapping and sophisticated surface energy measurement.
It’s been set up with a variety of equipment including gas transmission rate analysers, glass bottle testing instrumentation and coatings spraying equipment to develop new and improved water, solvent and energy curable primers, inks and coatings. A lab laminator will be added in 2017 to help study the interaction between ink, substrate, primers, overprint varnishes and laminating adhesives.
Russell Schwartz, chief technology officer for Sun Chemical, said that it was a major investment, adding: “This enhanced capability will help us expand our product range offering into an evolving packaging market that includes laminating adhesives, glass decoration and printed electronics. The integration of coatings technology with ink, polymer and functional materials development within the same technical organisation and facility transcends product lines and geographical barriers. It will also help expand Sun Chemical’s Advanced Materials portfolio into industrial coatings applications.”
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