Editorial

Citation

(2004), "Editorial", Pigment & Resin Technology, Vol. 33 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/prt.2004.12933caa.001

Editorial

A typical coating formulation consists of colorants, fillers, binders, solvents and additives. This issue contains papers reporting recent research and development on fillers, binders and colorants, by relatively young academic and industrial researchers.

Many properties of coatings, such as rheology of the coating formulation, the colour characteristics and the gloss of the coating film, are associated with the degree of dispersion of the particulate matters within the coating film. It is, therefore, not surprising that one of the more time-consuming but important operation during a coating manufacturing process is the dispersion operation. Through the years, much effort had been made to improve the dispersability of colorants and fillers within coating systems. Development of dispersion agents and modification of particle surface had been the main directions of improving the dispersability of particles.

Dr Jesionowski and his colleagues at the Poznan University of Technology reported their study of the influence of the solvents, used in the modification of the silica filler, on the dispersability of the silica particles. It was found that highly uniform particles were achieved when silica was modified with five parts (weight) of 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane in methanol. The editor hopes to see further studies, by Dr Jesionowski and his colleagues, into the chemical and physical-chemical mechanisms relevant to the solvent-silane-silica interactions.

In most anti-corrosive coating systems, polymeric binders play important corrosion inhibition roles. Amines and amine derivatives have long been known to be effective corrosion inhibitors. Professor Youssef prepared and characterised novel amide polymers which possessed significant corrosion inhibition capability. Such amide polymers were characterised by having electron pair rich centres which were capable of engaging in chemisorption on or complexing with metal surface. Professor Youssef concluded that the novel amide polymers prepared could be used as environment-friendly corrosion inhibitors in anti-corrosion coating systems.

UV curing technology is another environment- friendly approach in coating technology. UV curing technology has found significant applications in printing inks and printing. Worldwide, Europe has led the UV printing technology, whilst within the Europe, UK has led the UV printing technology, mainly due to a considerable level of commitment made by large printing companies such as Field Packaging. Currently, UV curable coatings/inks are still more costly than conventional coatings/inks. However, the significant benefits of UV curing technology outweigh the cost issue by a very large margin. In recent years, the editor has carried out research and development into UV curing technology and has been actively engaged in promoting UV curing technology to printing and coatings industries. It is the editor's view that the near future will see a significant increase in the application of UV curing technology, as legislations in various countries change to discourage the use of conventional curing coatings systems and as the demand for higher quality from consumers becomes more stringent. It is therefore a pleasure to see the report, by Dr Bajpai and her colleagues, on their study on the UV curable soybean oil. It is encouraging to notice that such a study was carried out jointly by academic and industrial researchers. The editor sincerely wishes that the materials developed by Dr Bajpai and her colleagues would soon become commercial products.

In textile printing/dyeing industry, effluent containing unfixed dyes is a challenging problem. Through the years, much effort has been made to develop dyes that have high colour strength, have good light, wash and rub-fastness, have high level of exhaustion and fix strongly to the fibres. Thus, superior dyes mean cleaner effluents. Dr Helal of Helwan University reported his study on the synthesis and characterisation of pyridinone azo dyes for application on nylon and polyester fibres. The new dyes were found to give good colour characteristics and good fastness properties on fibres.