Coatings and adhesives manufacturers face increasing pressure to stay competitive. They must rapidly optimize products, enhance efficiency, and ensure sustainability while complying with regulations. Additionally, these products must become more circular without compromising essential properties. The key to achieving this lies in selecting the right binders and crosslinkers.
To support this effort, Covestro plans to open an automated laboratory in 2025. The facility will focus on optimizing coating and adhesive formulations, helping customers develop superior products faster and more efficiently.
Enhancing Efficiency with Automation
“Our automated laboratory will revolutionize coatings and adhesives research,” says Thomas Büsgen, head of the laboratory. “By operating almost autonomously and leveraging existing knowledge, data lakes, and newly generated data, it significantly improves formulation development. We can refine existing formulations faster and even create entirely new ones, taking modern research to the next level,” added Büsgen.
Advanced Testing with Covestro Binders and Crosslinkers
The new facility will test formulations using Covestro’s binders and crosslinkers. These components determine essential product properties like hardness, adhesion, opacity, gloss, and durability. Since formulations typically contain seven to fifteen components, their possible combinations are vast. Traditionally, standard formulations are used due to the complexity of testing multiple variations. However, the automated lab enables more extensive test series using computer-aided design and automation.
“Our automated laboratory expands our testing capabilities,” informed Martin Merkens, Head of Sales and Market Development EMLA at Covestro’s Coatings and Adhesives business unit. Merkens added, “It takes over routine tasks from our specialized labs, allowing our experts to focus on customer-specific challenges and explore innovative approaches”.
Supporting Sustainability and Circular Economy
The facility plays a crucial role in advancing circular economy initiatives. It accelerates testing for alternative raw materials, including bio-based and recycled options, helping assess their impact on final product properties more efficiently. Operating 24/7, the lab aims to conduct tens of thousands of tests annually, setting new benchmarks in variety, precision, and speed.
Moreover, the automated lab generates vast amounts of structured data. Special machine learning algorithms analyze this information alongside measurement data from existing studies. Artificial intelligence helps predict new experiments based on desired properties while simultaneously validating them, creating a self-learning system that continually improves formulations.
Simulating Real-World Applications
Beyond testing water and solvent-based 1K and 2K systems, the laboratory will conduct material tests on raw materials, formulations, and applied films. It can simulate different climate conditions to replicate real-world applications.
Additionally, Covestro’s digitalized lab network allows seamless sample sharing with specialized testing facilities. This integration enriches datasets with market-specific test results, enabling faster identification of key dependencies and performance insights.
As per the press release, Covestro’s automated laboratory represents a major step forward in coatings and adhesives innovation, offering manufacturers a smarter, faster, and more sustainable approach to formulation development.
