BASF's Coatings division, a leading global supplier of high-quality, durable and safe automotive refinish coatings, uses a wide range of hardeners, including Desmodur® Ultra hardener from Covestro. This enables BASF to upgrade its refinish portfolio to meet higher occupational health and safety standards for the use of isocyanates. The hardeners contain very low residual amounts of monomeric diisocyanates of less than 0.1 percent by weight, setting a completely new standard in occupational hygiene.
"Thanks to the use of these raw materials, our refinish coatings meet the highest safety requirements while maintaining premium quality," says Fabien Boschetti, Director Global Marketing at BASF Automotive Refinish Coatings Solutions. "This allows us to minimize the impact of the new EU regulations on body shops."
The Ultra products are below the limit value of 0.1 percent by weight of residual monomers set out in the new REACH regulation on the restricted use of diisocyanates. The painters in the body shops supplied by BASF can thus save additional effort in implementing the new REACH regulation. BASF is thus continuing its philosophy of constantly improving the occupational safety of its coating solutions.
BASF's Coatings division also benefits from this: "As this is a 1:1 replacement, our customer was able to retain its paint formulations. This significantly simplifies the changeover to Ultra products," explains coatings expert Dr. Markus Mechtel from Covestro. "In this way, the body centers benefit from the performance of the two-component polyurethane coatings and at the same time meet higher occupational hygiene requirements."
The solution is also in line with three UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs): Number 3: Good Health and Well-Being, Number 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, and Number 12: Responsible Production and Consumption.
