BASF AG has received the European Coatings Award 2007. BASF researchers were awarded the prestigious prize for the new AQAGloss binder for high-gloss water-based coatings yesterday - May 7, 2007 - in Nuremberg. The prize is presented every two years on the eve of the European Coatings Show (ECS), Europe’s leading trade fair for paints and coatings, and goes to the best scientific presentation of new product technologies.
BASF’s presentation of AQAGloss at the ECS show cases an innovation in the field of water-based coatings. “AQAGloss is a brand-new dispersion-based binder for the manufacture of high gloss water-based coatings and thus a genuine alternative to conventional solvent-based architectural coatings”, explained Jan-Peter Sander, head of BASF’s Adhesive and Construction Polymers regional business unit and thus responsible for the architectural coatings business in Europe. The product’s advantage? Paints based on AQAGloss can already meet the environmental standards of the future (EU Directive 2004/42/EC and emissions tests based on the guidelines of Germany’s Committee for Health-Related Evaluation of Building Products - AgBB), since thanks to their environmentally friendly properties they contain only small amounts of film-forming auxiliaries. In addition, they contain no heavy metals (driers).
AQAGloss also introduces new possibilities for processing. It forms a crystal-clear, tack-free film at room temperature and is extremely easy to apply. The advantages it offers users are haze-free, high-gloss surfaces previously associated only with solvent-based alkyd resin coatings. Whereas the flow and leveling properties of conventional acrylate coatings can barely match the performance of solvent-based systems, AQAGloss produces paint formulations whose rheological behavior meets the requirements of professionals too. “With AQAGloss, we are offering our customers a first-class product, which along with its innovative and environmentally friendly features is also easy to apply. This will enable us to further expand our leading position in sustainable, water-based dispersions for architectural coatings and to set new standards”, emphasized Dr. Frauke Richter, head of marketing for Polymers for Architectural Coatings at BASF.