Chemical Design and Solutions

• Why does my ‘solution A’ flocculate?
• How to improve adhesion of my coating on ‘material B’?
• I need a better shelf life of ‘solution C’?
• How to steadily disperse ‘color pigment D’?
• Where do I find a sourcing alternative for ‘material E’?

The past decades we have successfully developed formulations for coatings – many of them with a switchable photochemical functionality. These coatings and formulations have been applied in various contexts, such as deposition on polymers, plastics, glass or metal, both from aqueous and solvent solutions.

Our expertise helps you to improve the shelf life of chemical solutions and obtain longer service life and functional performance of the final coatings (think sensitivity, color and durability).

Next to that, you also call on us for cost reduction exercises or the replacement of obsolete components.

AgfaLabs is your one-stop-shop in chemical design of formulations. You provide us with a complete list of specifications of the functional requirements or we develop them together first.

Formulations and process development may include the following elements:

• Pigment & dye chemistry: identification of high quality, specialty dyes and pigments for creating the desired properties (color, hue, saturation, storage stability, light fastness, …) in ink and coating applications.
• Additives: we have built up a wide experience of specialty chemicals such as surfactants, anti-oxidants and anti-corrosives.
• Polymers: identification, chemical synthesis and development of specialty polymeric materials for application in dispersions and coatings.
• Surface chemistry: modification of the surface properties of pigments, use of pigment-binder and coating-substrate interactions to improve the formulation and/or coating quality.
• Inks & coatings formulation: development of tailored coating formulations. Combinatorial screening and pilot production of aqueous and organic based formulations, emulsions and dispersions on state-of-the-art milling equipment.
• Curing chemistry: development of UV-curing formulations for application in ink and coating fluids.
• Sourcing of chemicals: the complete service from A to Z as a one-stop-shop. For example, we identify suppliers for specific base materials and interesting intermediate products via both external or internal databases and our extended network of chemical producers in the EU and Asia. And we build complete sourcing dossiers including feasibility (cost, logistics, security aspects), analytical proof of specifications based on samples and a risk analysis of the manufacturer.