With the continuous improvement of people's travel needs, various forms of rail transit such as domestic subways and high-speed rails continue to extend in all directions, extending in all directions.
From the extremely cold northeast CRH380A line to the northwestern D55691 Baolan passenger train to the wind and sand walk, and then to the CRH2-300 Beijing-Shanghai line in the humid east-on the vast land of China, a train passing through northern Vietnam can deeply appreciate The mood of spring in the south is strong, and the north is frozen.
Because of this, China's rail transit industry requires that the exterior paintability of vehicles must be able to meet these changing, complex and even harsh natural environments. For this reason, the coating requirements for rail trains are very strict.
Generally speaking, coatings used for vehicle painting can be divided into solvent-based coatings and water-based coatings.
According to the "China Water-based Refinish Paint Technology and Application White Paper" jointly released by the China Coatings Industry Association and Axalta Coating System in 2018, water-based coatings refer to coatings using water as the solvent or dispersion medium, which is different from traditional solvent-based paints. VOC content (Volatile Organic Compounds) of more than 80%, VOC content of water-based paint is only 10%. Therefore, under the general trend of environmental protection, the country is gradually implementing water-based coatings in transportation and other industries.
Axalta Coating Systems is an internationally leading coatings company, formerly known as DuPont Performance Coatings. Axalta, as a global leader in commercial vehicle (heavy truck, train, bus, truck, railway, aviation, and marine) coatings, serves almost all of the world's leading commercial vehicle brands. Now they have focused their attention on China's rail market. .
It is understood that Axalta's water-based commercial vehicle coatings have been applied to the Fuxing high-speed rail.
CR400AF Fuxing train is mainly colored by Axalta commercial vehicle painting solution
Axalta's China Commercial Vehicle Coatings Business Division Commercial Director Li Jixuan and Axalta Coating System Technology R & D (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. Senior Chemical Shi Jianping interprets Axalta from two dimensions: market and technology.
How do you see the market prospects of waterborne coatings for domestic rail transit?
Li Jisong: Commercial vehicle manufacturers have paid more and more attention to environmental protection and the upgrading of overall manufacturing in recent years. It is in this environment that water-based coatings, as a high-performance environmentally responsible coating technology, are becoming more and more popular in the passenger car market.
Axalta occupies a leading position in the global commercial vehicle market, especially in the field of heavy trucks, which can be called the global industry leader. In China, we have seen the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" help the rapid development of the rail transit industry, and major transportation infrastructure projects are being promoted throughout the country, including planning rail transit and subway construction. At the same time, over the past ten years, China has experienced large-scale and rapid development of railway and rail transit. Among them, China's rail transit is moving towards high-end development, with more emphasis on quality, environmental sustainability, and intelligence. I believe those low-end manufacturing technologies will be gradually eliminated.
Environmental protection, sustainability and high performance are the most important characteristics of water-based coatings. The production and application of water-based coatings are based on the concept of environmental responsibility and technological trends. As a global leader in waterborne coating technology and applications, Axalta is working hard to coordinate all parties to bring this advanced coating technology and products to the booming rail transit market.
We are very pleased to see that as water-based coating technology is accepted by more and more customers and the scale of localized production is increasing, water-based coatings will be more and more commonly used in the rail transportation industry. We are very pleased that Axalta, as an industry leader, has started a new process of sustainable development in this industry with our customers.
So what are the advantages of Axalta's waterborne coatings?
He Jianping: Axalta entered the Chinese market in 1984. It has Asia-Pacific technology R & D centers and global color centers in Shanghai. There are 4 refinish paint customer training centers located throughout the country. Two manufacturing bases have been established in Changchun and Shanghai Jiading. Invested and established the third largest paint manufacturing base in Nanjing. Our Shanghai Jiading water-based paint factory is expanding and increasing production. At present, we have a technical research and development team with hundreds of people in China, and a research and development team specifically for water-based paints.
Axalta's commercial vehicle water-based paints have a strong product line and R & D and service teams around the world. They have been widely used in global rail transit and other commercial vehicles. In Europe, Axalta's coatings are used on Siemens Velaro D high-speed trains, the Dokland-Rotterdam tram line and the London Underground Line (VLU & SSL).
Based on strong R & D capabilities, we can effectively set and control the performance of coating products according to customer needs to ensure that they can meet customer requirements.
Axalta Shanghai Asia-Pacific Technology Research Center
What are Axalta's specific low-VOC coating products?
He Jianping: Axalta's low-VOC coating products mainly include water-based, powder and high-solid coatings. Develop and produce products that meet VOC emission standards in accordance with relevant national and international regulations. At the same time, technically, reduce the VOC emissions by using water-based substrates and increasing the proportion of solid components in solvents. Powder coatings have almost zero VOC emissions and are another environmentally responsible coating product.
Axalta's next move in the face of rising global prices of coating raw materials?
Li Jisong: We are responding to the challenges brought by rising raw materials through a series of measures such as optimizing production processes, improving production efficiency, and reducing production costs, and digesting the pressure caused by rising prices of some raw materials.
At the same time, we also hope to establish a long-term partnership with the rail transit field and reach some new project cooperation to further absorb the pressure from the raw material side.
What are the characteristics of Axalta's global market distribution?
Li Jizhen: Globally, we are divided into two major businesses: transportation coatings (passenger car coatings, commercial vehicle coatings) and high performance coatings (automotive repair coatings, industrial coatings).
In China, our current business covers all of these coatings areas. With the rapid development of rail transit in the Chinese market, we hope to rely on our world-class products and innovative capabilities to become the premier coatings supplier in the Chinese rail transit market.
As an international company, Axalta's product team and service network are spread all over the world, which is a very important cooperation advantage for our customers who are constantly going to the international market. Working with global teams to develop local markets, provide first-class coating products and excellent services-we are ready to fully support the sustainable development of Chinese rail transit customers in the domestic and international markets.