Last month I had the pleasure of attending Ashland Inc.’s Innovation Day at the company’s corporate headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware. A reception and dinner with company executives, investors, and customers kicked things off the night before the Innovation Day events. I was happy to sit at a table with Ashland’s Chief Technology Officer, Osama Musa, who shared his excitement about his upcoming presentation regarding the company’s latest innovations for the future of the coatings industry.

The following morning, Ashland’s Chair and CEO, Guillermo Novo, launched Innovation Day with a presentation about a “new” Ashland, and the company’s vision and goals for the future. He focused on Ashland’s “Big 3” strategic growth markets (pharma, personal care, and coatings), its sustainability profile, and innovation efforts. Sustainability is integral to Ashland’s future, and Novo firmly stated his belief that a company can drive innovation, improve performance and be sustainable.

Osama Musa discussed three new products under development for the coatings market, including:

• Transformed vegetable oils. This “new-to-the-world” additive gives formulators precise control over the percentage of oil dissolved in water. This 4-in-1 product can act as dispersant, film former, binder and delivery system.
• New super wetting agent. This non-silicone, non-fluoro-based wetting agent will launch for the wood coatings market in Q4 of this year.
• pH neutralizer. Another “new-to-the-world” product that offers 25% more efficiency and has 3X lower VOCs as compared to the leading benchmark product.

Following Musa’s technical presentation, Min Chong, Senior Vice President Personal Care and Specialty Additives, shared some of Ashland’s plans for the future of the specialty additives division. First, is strengthening its core – rheology – with new additive developments. Second, is using existing assets to launch new technologies and branch out into the industrial coatings market. Third, Ashland plans to grow in adjacent markets.

The event was also webcast live, but those who attended in person were treated to guided tours of several research and development laboratories located onsite. A highlight for me was watching the company’s Aquarius™ Genesis film coating system being applied spray-applied to pills/tablets for the pharma market (watch the video below). This ultra-high-solids system provides up to a 65% reduction in coating processing time due to its shorter drying time.

Attending events like this always inspires new ideas for articles, increases my knowledge of the coatings industry, and provides networking and learning opportunities that can’t be gained while in the office. Thanks very much to Ashland for inviting me to attend!