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The industry sets new challenges

Gabriel González - SoluteqGabriel González is the representative of Colombia in our professional of the month. A chemical engineer with 14 years of experience and who now has new challenges as president of Star and as operational manager of Technical Solutions in Chemistry (Soluteq).

by Duván Chaverra Agudelo


It was in 1998 when Gabriel González entered the world of coatings, after obtaining two years before his professional title as a chemical engineer. His 14 years of experience in this industry have been fundamental for the Colombian headquarters of the Association of Andean Technicians in Coatings (Star) to recognize his work and appoint him, since March of this year, as its new president.

Gabriel was born on July 8, 1972 in Itagüí (Antioquia), a municipality adjacent to the city of Medellín. He is currently the director of operations of the company Soluciones Técnicas en Química S.A.S. (Soluteq), but previously, our Professional of the Month has toured some of the most recognized companies in Colombia.

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His first experience was as a plant manager at Basf Química Colombiana, where he later served as a formulating engineer. Later he joined the ranks of the company Minerales Industriales. In 2001 he arrived at Colorquímica, where he began his career as head of production of the Chemical Auxiliaries and Resins (Polymer Dispersions) plants, and 4 years later he held the position of commercial technical advisor, where he led the publication of a book on coatings. Then he had a stint in Venezuela as a branch director and after the end of that project, he became a commercial technical advisor for international operations, serving the markets of Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Panama and Costa Rica.

"I started working with paints from a very young age, the love for carpentry, wanting to see the bicycle as new, and the desire to keep the house beautiful, led me to wield sprays, brushes, rollers and later, air guns," said the guest.

Achievements and goals
Gabriel now works for a company that is just beginning its foray into the industry. "Since 2010 I have directed from the operations part the start of a new project. Soluteq started from a peeled lot and now we enjoy a plant that we are polishing and optimizing; located in the Free Zone of the Coffee Axis, in the department of Quindío, we have had to train people, train them, show them the risks of a chemical plant, and a thousand other things."

Among the most significant achievements, the Professional of the Month highlights his training and advisory work with those who begin their journey through the industry, in addition to sharing their experiences. "I consider that the most important thing I have done in this sector is to accompany the smaller companies through several talks with Star, with the book I mentioned earlier and with my work as a technical advisor, where I did weekly painting with my clients, in their plants or in my laboratory, and although I am aware that at that time it was not the best process, nor the best formulation, the truth is that it was based on personal experiences."

In the research field, Gabriel acknowledges that he has had successful experiences and others not so much, but "I remember one very special, was that of sludge in Industrial Minerals, and although I did not participate in the end of the project, the team with which I worked and I formed the bases and left the topic very advanced, finally polished costs and details. It was very interesting to see sludge tank cars arrive and to know that a few months ago this did not exist in the country."

Vision of the Colombian market
Engineer González has a positive view of the Colombian paint and coatings market. It recognizes that in a country of diverse environments, the sector must work in different ways, taking into account that small businesses play a fundamental role in the local economy.



"The market in Colombia is quite heterogeneous, I think that the climatic characteristics and the idiosyncrasy determine the quality and volume of consumption. The center of the country prefers to paint every 4 or 5 years, with a very good quality, on the contrary, on the north coast it is preferred to paint once a year, but there a lower quality is handled. It is a very competitive market, maybe the official figures do not exist, but in the gatherings in which I have participated there is talk that throughout the country there can be up to 1,000 'factories', of these only a few are recognized, and are part of the schedule of any company that comes with intentions to position a raw material in the sector, and it is also true that in those few companies there is a very important percentage of the business, but that percentage is even of better margin, although more complex issues of portfolio, logistics, identification, among other aspects, "explained the Professional of the month.

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Sectors such as construction, remodeling, and the sale of used goods are factors that will contribute to the growth of the industry, which adds, according to Gabriel, to the good economic climate of the nation.

What needs to be corrected
As for the formulation, the engineer González recognizes that the viscosity process in the paints still needs to be improved. "The final consumer, mainly the painter, has given a lot of importance to viscosity; the criterion that the spatula should remain standing inside the gallon is still used, which is very widespread, and very little work has been done to change this perception to users. But there has been a small decrease in this aspect, although not in all manufacturers. This failure in formulation (high viscosity) finally ends up forming an environment conducive to the inclusion of air, which complicates the production process, depending on the thickener, this increases costs or affects the most important properties, and generates that the applicator dilutes with a greater amount of water, which has no effect (possibly increase the work)".

Efficient formulations
A topic as topical as that of environmentally friendly formulations cannot be overlooked. This is considered by the Professional of the Month to ensure that all the bets of the chemical industry towards the future are directed towards the production of technologies with these properties.

"Although sometimes the budget is not enough, there is a suitable climate to work on more environmentally friendly formulations, and around this issue there is a lot of work."

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