Rohm and Haas Company has announced its intention to allocate $150 million -- roughly half of its nearly $300 million 2007 R&D budget -- for sustainability efforts, including new product development, energy efficiency and process improvements.
Many of the new products are intended to help transform traditional industrial applications to more sustainable, water-based acrylic technology, including home building insulation, road/highway marking paints, and industrial paints and coatings.
Rohm and Haas debuted acrylic emulsion technology for interior house paints more than 50 years ago. Today, approximately 85 percent of the paints sold in the United States are based on acrylic technology and can be found behind the labels of nearly every branded paint manufacturer in the United States. Just as important, when used these paints emit low amounts of volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, which are a significant contributor to ground smog and air pollution.
In addition to its core architectural paint and coatings market, the company is bringing environmentally advanced technology to industrial markets, which have only recently begun to convert to acrylic-based technology.
Advances in the Rohm and Haass Aquaset™, Avanse™, and Fastrack™ platforms have facilitated the removal of harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and formaldehyde from a range of paints, coatings and building materials.
Developments in three product areas demonstrate this significant commitment to transform the industrial market to more environmentally advanced technology:
- Aquaset Thermoset Resins -- High performance water-based fiber-bonding solutions that replace formaldehyde-based resins in fiberglass home insulation and can be used in a range of other applications. Aquaset technology is non-combustible, non-hazardous, non-reactive, recyclable and non-flammable, which earned it OSHA's highest rating.
- Avanse Technology -- Developed specifically for coating structural steel and concrete surfaces, it allows low VOC coatings to be used in the most demanding applications, where previously only solvent-borne coatings were suitable. California just recently specified Avanse MV-100 for painting all of its steel highway bridges.
- Fastrack Technology -- Water-based road-marking systems using acrylic technologies that are found on highways, raceways and even the space shuttle's runway.
