United States. Ashland announced that it is transforming its technical and analytical services for the paints and coatings industry by adding a dedicated laboratory on its campus in Wilmington, Delaware.
The new 2,000-square-foot facility complements the existing 8,000-square-foot facility known as the Coatings Center of Excellence. Together, the facility offers paint formulators ample resources to test new or modified formulations, understanding consumer preferences, and optimizing their products for success.
The company secures that extended access to Ashland's patent-pending Application Reader Technology (ART) device will be a major attraction for global customers. This device interprets how painters apply paint and converts that information into objective data and concrete actions. This information can be used to tailor formulations to customers' specific preferences for painting. There are two ART devices at the headquarters.
The large surface area of the facility allows application testing ranging from small-scale displays to simulating field applications using 10 4' x 8' Drywall sheets. Tests using the three main application methods - aerosol, brush and roller - will be taken into account.
