| NanoProducts Corporation has announced that its technology has been successfully demonstrated to significantly improve the performance of coatings. NanoProducts also announced that its patented nanoscale materials useful in such coatings are now available in metric ton quantities. Coatings are used in numerous applications. Coatings are applied to protect, enhance or decorate products such as glass, wood, metals, plastics, paper, fabrics, shoes, sun glasses, sporting goods, floors, furniture, cookware, appliances, medical devices, electronics and automobiles. Nevertheless, the coatings themselves, and the surfaces they are applied to, are subject to damage from environmental elements such as rain, snow, salts, acid precipitation, ultraviolet part of sunlight and humidity. These coatings can also get scratched, chipped or otherwise damaged during use or during manufacturing and shipping. There is a constant effort among leading companies to identify ways to prevent such damage from the elements and from chipping, spotting or scratching. While modest improvements have been made to coatings through conventional methods and materials, such efforts have yet to provide a compelling technology advance. Recent developments in nanotechnology are increasingly being evaluated and adopted to enable advanced coatings, as evidenced by the successful demonstration of such breakthroughs by PPG Industries using NanoProducts’ PüreNano family of nanoscale materials. PPG is the world's largest producer of transportation coatings and a leading global provider of industrial and packaging coatings, aircraft transparencies, flat and fabricated glass, specialty chemicals and architectural coatings. In US Patent Applications 2003/0162876 and 2003/0162015 (August 2003, US Patent & Trademark Office), researchers from PPG confirm the useful characteristics of NanoProducts’ complex silicon oxides and report successfully incorporating these nanoparticles in automotive coatings. They report that NanoProducts’ nanoparticles based coatings show excellent chip resistance, excellent scratch resistance (as well as retained scratch resistance after simulated weathering), outstanding appearance, sag resistance, superior sandability and resistance to water spotting and acid etch. PPG explained “typically, a harder more highly crosslinked film may exhibit improved scratch resistance, but it is less flexible and more susceptible to chipping or thermal cracking; a softer less crosslinked film while not prone to chipping or thermal cracking, is susceptible to scratching, water spotting, and acid etch.” Past attempts with fumed silica or colloidal silica have been unsuccessful in providing the breakthroughs desired. PPG reports that such breakthroughs are achievable with nanotechnology enabled by NanoProducts’ PüreNanoTM nanoparticles. The PPG report notes that the quality of aluminum silicate nanoparticles obtained from NanoProducts were confirmed by transmission electron microscopy analysis, had a refractive index of 1.519, were substantially spherical, colorless, free of surface hydroxyl groups, and did not agglomerate while the coating composition was being prepared even at high loadings. PPG reports that, in addition to other benefits, the coatings prepared using NanoProducts’ nanoparticles simultaneously showed - Excellent chip resistance under test method SEA J400
- Excellent initial scratch resistance of the nanoparticle comprising coating as measured by Atlas AATCC Scratch Tester in combination with 3M 281Q abrasive paper
- Excellent retained scratch resistance after the coating had been subjected to weathering according to ASTM D-1499-64. With nanoparticle and composition optimization, the coatings’ gloss and other performance characteristics can be further enhanced.
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