Powder coating finish continues to gain further acceptance

As the powder coating finish continued to gain further acceptance, other issues involving coatings were coming to light in Europe. These issues would affect the way the industry, as a whole, would progress through the 1970s and into the present. The highly industrialized nations of Western Europe,with population densities of more than 1,000 people per square mile, were fighting ever-increasing air and water pollution hazards. The paint and coatings industries of these countries feared legislation similar to the “Los Angeles Rule 66,” which placed strict limits on industrial emissions, and looked for low-VOC or non-VOC alternatives. They accelerated the research and development, not only into thermoset decorative powder coating, but also into powder coating raw material, processing and application equipment.

By 1973, the original four basic chemistries-epoxy, carboxypolyester-epoxy hybrid (or, simply, hybrid), hydroxypolyester-(blocked) polyurethane (named polyester or polyurethane) and carboxypolyester-TGIC (or polyester TGIC )-were already established in, or introduced to, the European thermoset decorative powder coating markets. Some other chemistries evaluated during the same period, such as alkyd melamine and some acrylics, were short-lived because of stability, application and performance problems.