With the European coatings sector especially facing ever more complex challenges and influences arriving from environmental accountability on the one hand and artificial intelligence on the other – to name but two of many! – once again the huge efforts and energies that industry expends are seen lying well beyond the coatings sector and its laboratories per se.

This column provides an update on how two companies are embracing these influences as the European paint and coatings sector advances on the two very different fronts of accountability and AI technology.

BASF Coatings Announces Giant Leap in Eco-Accountability

BASF Coatings has recently launched a new digital solution to calculate the product carbon footprint (PCF) of its sales portfolio, replacing a long-held internally developed solution with a new approach to Sustainability Footprint Management. The solution forms a replacement for an application that BASF Coatings has used for several years to provide reliable CO₂ data to customers worldwide.

BASF Coatings can now lay claim to ownership of a more responsive and globally applicable CO₂ data basis for 120,000 sales products. Every single aspect of greenhouse gas emissions in raw materials, ranging from procurement, production and transportation, can be calculated consistently, thereby forming a system with traceable CO₂ accountability.

For the paint and coatings sector, where there is a huge number of color variants, this effectively creates a factual database that can be offered to support companies in their decision-making processes as far as sustainability is concerned.

The core element of the new PCF tool is the CO₂ data for more than 25,000 raw materials sourced from around the world. Furthermore, the tool incorporates the individual energy flows from more than 30 BASF Coatings production sites.

One unique advance in this area is the inclusion of further impact categories beyond CO_2, which opens up additional important insights for the development of targeted solutions that can further enhance customers’ sustainability.

The new system has already witnessed a global implementation at all BASF Coatings production sites and has been carried out stepwise and in coordination hand-in-hand with the system supplier SAP. BASF Coatings is now adopting SAP Sustainability Footprint Management (SFM) as its way forward in this area.

In a second string to BASF Coatings’ accountability bow, BASF Coatings uses the GLASS (Global Life Cycle Assessment of Automotive Surface Solutions) tool for OEMs and the EcoImpact Assessment tool for body shops to support customers as a value-added service.

These applications facilitate both modular and holistic views and analysis throughout the entire painting process. It provides customers with data‑driven approaches towards process optimization. This facilitates customer cooperation to identify opportunities for improvement across the entire application chain – optimizing efficiency, quality, and sustainability, including reducing emissions beyond the BASF Coatings product itself.

By drawing on a combination of life‑cycle analysis, sector‑specific expertise, depth of information and digital applicability, BASF Coatings’ GLASS tool is unique to the market.

These two digital tools are a part of BASF Coatings’ strategy as far as sustainability is concerned and the company draws on renewable energy and renewable or recycled feedstocks as far as possible with a view to fulfilling its own climate goals, which are a 40% reduction in carbon footprint by 2030, judged relative to its figures for 2018.

DIC Corporation Sets Up Swiss (and Japanese) Investments

In the realms of artificial intelligence (AI), which continues to gain traction and interest for its applications in the paint and coatings sector, Japan’s DIC Corporation has made available a $62 million investment portfolio with a view to creating new businesses in the physical AI domain. Physical AI is an AI domain that is concerned with sensors that perceive, understand and interact the physical world so that robotics and machinery can make decisions automatically. Simultaneously, the company is investing through the Switzerland-based Emerald Technology Ventures, a venture capital company. DIC will enter into investing in startups and collaborations and will use Emerald’s investment support capabilities to lever its presence in the sector. Switzerland is seen as a major leader in AI, robotics, innovation and advanced material design.

In the first instance, DIC will establish a subsidiary in Zurich so that the geographical proximity of the two parties will rapidly facilitate the identification of suitable investments and initiatives. Emerald has built a network of operations throughout Europe and North America since it started up 26 years ago. In a statement released by the company, it believes that the next wave of innovations is likely to pair human insight with intelligent systems, so that the effect is not of one human replacement but human enhancement. Emerald’s background is heavily involved with sensors, robotics, advanced materials and industrial digital transformations.

Additionally – and slightly tangential to my European remit – it should be noted that DIC Corporation has also been investing in AI in Japan. Recently, it invested in the Japan-based RT Corporation, a company that develops robots in various forms and works with the associated embedding of AI within them. The objectives of this earlier investment are quite different and target labor saving, automation, and the design of advanced industrial processes. DIC will contribute its broad expertise in materials science with a view to overcoming chemical limitations as part of its drive to focus on smart-living objectives.

Insights into AI Paints and Coatings in Europe and Beyond

According to a recent report by Next Move Strategic Consulting, the European paint and coatings sector represents a sizeable opportunity for AI applications, although it is trailing behind North America in this area.

Major European coatings markets that are being driven forward by AI advances are the aerospace and defense sectors, with the key applications being coatings with advanced protection for aircraft and defense equipment.

The focus on superior performance and innovation in these segments is seen driving a lot of the Europe AI/coatings interaction. Besides the aerospace, defense and military sectors, other key application sectors for AI will be the automotive and packaging industries.

The scenario in North America is similar and focused on military uses with the same sorts of protection or longevity objectives. Unsurprisingly, the Asia-Pacific region can expect to see rapid advances in AI applications, particularly in China and India, while other parts of the world with emerging markets such as Latin America, South Africa and Saudi Arabia will see more incremental uptake of AI in the paint and coatings industry and will reflect developments in infrastructure and industrialization.