Head of Business Unit Preservation
SANITIZED Preservation supports paint manufacturers to ensure the performance and integrity of their products.
Interview
A lack of hygiene can prove costly. What does this mean specifically for paint production?
Production systems are intended to run to achieve maximum output, and any downtime in production costs time and money. For this reason, a growing number of manufacturers is recognizing that simply performing standard in-can preservation is not enough, especially since legal provisions heavily restrict the quantities of additives that can be used and consumers are increasingly valuing chemical-free products. Microbial impurities in the production process, such as biofilm in the storage tanks, often result in having to close down entire production lines for unscheduled cleaning. Issues with production hygiene that result in complaints can also be detrimental to the company’s reputation. You will also have a tough time convincing customers to give a defective product a second chance.
SANITIZED Preservation offers a hygiene audit for production companies. Why does this kill two birds with one stone?
This is not just about adding a certain amount of biocides to the paint at the end so that it remains stable and to rule out complaints. We are thinking ahead since our aim is to provide advice and specifically help the coating and paint industry to identify the sources for the bacterial contamination. And we are successful in doing so by looking at the entire production process and identifying critical areas. Improved hygiene management of critical contact points results in fewer additives being required in paints and coatings, resulting in a win-win of providing reliable product quality and using fewer additives.
What exactly does SANITIZED Preservation do during a hygiene audit?
Our local experts (also available for our customers in India and China) come to your company to check out the entire production process. This starts with the raw materials and continues up to the packaged end product, which ultimately results in a microbiological profile of production.
Hygiene audits are becoming an increasingly important part of successful system management. On-point process management and consistently implementing hygiene audits help to significantly reduce infection from new microbes. For this reason, raw materials, pipes, storage tanks, hoses and supply valves are also checked during the audit.
Time is a critical factor. How is SANITIZED able to quickly receive the laboratory results?
As for everything that SANITIZED works on, we always think about the general context and in terms of solutions for our customers and their products. The same applies when it comes to product protection for paints and coatings.
The Sanitized® Mobile Lab offers valuable support for the responsible yet effective use of antimicrobial additives. Now, instead of having to wait for days for laboratory results to provide information on the extent of the microbial contamination, the results are back within a few minutes. This lets companies decide one the required quantity and type of additives directly on site and does not give the microbes any chance to grow and multiply. In turn, this reduces the impact on the environment and people since fewer additives are used.
