Mexico. The University of the Americas Puebla (Udlap) and the National Association of Manufacturers of Paints and Inks (Anafapyt) inaugurated the Udlap-Anafapyt Paints and Coatings Laboratory, the first campus dedicated exclusively to this sector, which has three objectives: to serve as an academic tool to prepare better professionals for the industry, to meet the requests of Anafapyt's partners and to serve the general public that requests it.
With a joint investment, Anafapyt and the University of the Americas Puebla have managed to equip a first-class laboratory with the highest technological development, which will benefit the development of the paints and coating industry in Mexico, will serve as a tool that will foster the link between industry and academia, in addition to promoting an education of excellence and the training of critical professionals, creative and innovative.
For academic purposes, the Udlap-Anafapyt Coatings and Paints Laboratory will give courses, trainings and workshops on equipment handling and the importance of coatings, thus allowing the link between industry and academia. In addition, with the use of other laboratories that Udlap already has, such as the Instrumental Analysis Laboratory, where the test to measure the lead content in paints can be carried out by means of the atomic absorption equipment and the Microscopy Laboratory that allows surface morphology analysis to be carried out by means of the electron microscope, it will be possible to carry out other types of tests that complement the paint industry and that will allow students to be at the forefront in this sector.
The laboratory, being fully equipped with devices of the latest technology and prepared to perform evaluations of products and inputs of the industry in accordance with current regulations, will provide various types of tests such as: accelerated weathering by UV light and xenon, corrosion by salt spray, resistance to stress and elongation, drying time, wear by carving, flexibility and percentage of elongation, total lead, permeability, opacity, color, yellowing index, among others.
Inside the laboratory you can find a wide variety of equipment of different brands and with state-of-the-art technology, such as: automatic applicator with vacuum system, glitter, climatic chamber, analytical and granataria balance, thermo bath, corrosion chamber, desiccator, permeability cup, xenon arc lamp, U.V. camera, spectrophotometer, portable spectrophotometer, grindometer, adhesion and leveling kit, lavatest, cylindrical and conical mandrel, pycnometer, potentiometer, drying time recorder, tensiometer, Stormer and RVT viscometer, thickness gauge, lighting booth, direct and indirect impactometer, disperser and spray guns.
The Udlap-Anafapyt Coatings and Paints Laboratory is prepared to carry out evaluations of products and inputs of the industry in accordance with current regulations, so, among the types of paint that can be analyzed are: coating for ceilings with high solar reflectance index, bright architectural alkydal enamel, latex paints (formerly vinyl paints), elastomeric waterproofing and paints for horizontal signage.
In addition, it was confirmed that to guarantee the quality of the products and the satisfaction of their customers, a quality seal will be established that ensures certainty to users and maximum reliability in the results reports; that is why this new laboratory has the most advanced equipment for the evaluation of the products that will be worthy of the Anafapyt Seal.
The project to establish a Coatings and Paints Laboratory arose from an agreement signed a year ago between the University of the Americas Puebla and the National Association of Paint and Ink Manufacturers, in which the guidelines were established through which the development of a laboratory with state-of-the-art technology for the analysis and elaboration of tests for the painting industry in Mexico will be carried out. thus allowing applied research with the participation of students, thus opening the opportunity to collaborate with companies in the sector.
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