Energy and cost-efficient production processes for high-value coatings and inks for a sustainable future

 
Sustainability is becoming the new standard and no longer a nice-to-have. It's crucial to minimize CO2 emissions by reducing energy consumption in production processes, which is not only advantageous for the environment but also for your energy bill. In the wet grinding and dispersing process, the two biggest levers for energy reduction are the pre-dispersing and the fine grinding steps. For the pre-dispersing, many producers rely on high-speed dispersers. However, this technology consumes plenty of energy and is limited in its dispersing efficiency, hindering the fine grinding mill from using its full potential. Replacing the high-speed disperser with a low-speed agitator in combination with an advanced pre-dispersing unit improves the quality of the intermediate product immensely and cuts the energy costs by approximately 20%. Combined with the newest generation of high-power density bead mills, the overall mass specific energy [kWh/t] can be reduced by 50% at equally high product quality.