10 June 2026 Seminars

As the European coatings industry moves toward a more sustainable, design-driven, and experience-oriented future, innovation must extend beyond just performance. Solutions must also connect with the evolving visual and tactile expectations of consumer interests.

In this presentation Lorama Group will highlight how our sustainable solutions, colourants, and additive technologies support manufacturers in anticipating Colour, Material & Finish (CMF) trends for 2026–2027. Through a lens of market insight and design forecasting, we’ll explore key directional shifts in colour and surface aesthetics and pair complimentary solutions to demonstrate how companies can align with these consumer demands.

Attendees will gain perspective on how marketing foresight and materials innovation can intersect, helping formulators and brand owners develop coatings that not only perform but inspire.

UV radiation damages polymeric coating systems and substrates. UV Absorber additives are often included in coating formulations for protection. Traditional organic UV absorbers are consumed by exposure to solar radiation, limiting the lifetime of the coating. In contrast, inorganic UV absorbers are not consumed in situ, so extending the coating lifetime. Some inorganic UV absorbers are photoactive, generating radicals which degrade the coating.
Advanced inorganic UV absorbers based on cerium oxide nanoparticles are not photoactive and will not degrade the coating. Water and solvent based dispersions, both with uniform small particle size, allow transparency in coating films.

The coatings industry continues to face ever-increasing legislative pressure, driven by concerns surrounding health, the environment, and product safety.  While well-intended and usually necessary, it can have unintended consequences and restrict long-established products, introducing novel challenges for formulators.  Recent case studies include microplastics in seed coatings, biocide labelling, Titanium dioxide classification, and PFAS.  This fast-paced regulatory landscape requires inventive formulating to deliver solutions and high-quality products to customers.  The industry constantly evolves and roles surrounding regulation are more critical than ever.  This evolution also means that there is an increasing requirement for collaborations between industry and academia to negotiate these regulatory constraints. This paper aims to highlight formulating challenges using recent examples driven by regulatory changes.

Consistent colour delivery in coatings plays a critical role in customer satisfaction, perceived quality, production efficiency, and overall brand strength. Robust colour management practices enable paint and coatings manufacturers to achieve reliable colour consistency across all touchpoints, improving efficiency, fostering customer confidence and cohesion in brand representation. This presentation examines approaches to standardizing colour throughout the entire value chain—from manufacturing and quality control to digital channels such as e-commerce—and highlights practical methods for facilitating effective, end-to-end colour management.

Automotive clearcoats are expected to deliver long-lasting gloss and protection, even under frequent mechanical stress from washing and everyday use. Traditional approaches to improving scratch resistance rely on making the coating harder through increased crosslinking, but this strategy reaches natural limits of carbon-carbon bond and can make the coating brittle. Hard particles such as silica are another option, yet they typically distribute evenly throughout the film, which means a high amount is needed before the surface performance improves.

We introduce a new approach that allows silica to move preferentially toward the surface during film formation. By pairing the particles with a specially designed carrier resin, the additive becomes surface-active, enabling stronger scratch and mar resistance at lower loadings and cost-effective option. This translates directly into better durability during car washes, improved resistance to everyday rubbing or contact, and enhanced protection against dirt accumulation and graffiti.

Because the carrier-resin concept can be applied to other functional materials, it opens new opportunities for developing clearcoats with targeted and more efficient surface performance.

This workshop focuses on what happens after decisions have been made - and the barriers to adoption when moving sustainable coatings from concept into application, production and long-term use.

Many sustainable coatings meet regulatory and sustainability targets on paper, but face new challenges once they are applied, scaled up and used in the field. Cost remains a key barrier, with adoption often driven more by regulation, certification and specification than by customer pull, particularly in B2B and industrial markets.

This practical, experience-led workshop explores the operational and performance realities of delivering sustainable coatings to market, alongside the challenges of implementation. Drawing on real examples from formulators, suppliers and end users, it examines performance gaps, application variability, durability expectations, and how changes to application practices, equipment and processes can create additional hurdles.

It will also explore customer perception, including scepticism around green claims and limited awareness of the benefits sustainable solutions deliver, as well as how companies manage customer trust, warranties and liability when trade-offs and unintended consequences become visible.

Designed around shared experiences rather than presentations, the session provides practical insight into making sustainable coatings work in real-world conditions.

Chair: Brian Roulstone 

The coatings industry continues to face increasing pressure from evolving regulatory and voluntary standards. Trimethylolpropane (TMP), a common surface treatment for TiO₂, was moving toward a higher hazard classification; while circumstances have evolved, it remains self-classified as Reprotoxic Category 2. This drives the need for alternatives that meet performance and compliance requirements across architectural, industrial, and powder coatings.

This paper outlines the changing regulatory landscape and shows how Chemours’ TMP-free grades provide a viable path forward. This grade offers improved wetting and enhanced dispersibility, delivering reliable performance while supporting compliance with food contact requirements and future regulatory expectations.