The world of Sikkens is a world of color. Because paint is color – and paint is our most important product. A simple product – considered on the surface. Behind that simple coat of paint however hides a whole individual world of much greater meaning. A world in which many people work together to give other materials color, gloss and protection.
What is paint exactly?
To one person, paint is protection and color for keeping his possessions in good condition and giving them a colorful appearance. To another, paint is a semi-finished product with which he can soundly finish many kinds of materials and products. To Sikkens paint is a finished product, attuned to the needs of diverse markets.
Paint = protection and color
Various materials that are highly suited to building and construction cannot do without a protective coating: for example wood can rot, iron can rust. Who would not want to protect his possessions - from home to super tanker, from car to factory building - against deterioration? Paint often offers the best and also the most economic protection, and can be applied relatively quickly.
Protection and color go hand in hand. Color is the aesthetic function of paint. Color is going to play an increasingly important role in our daily life: in clothing, on utility objects, in the interior and on the exterior of our houses, on cars and in our built up environment: in the old town neighborhoods, in the dormitory towns with their giants of apartment buildings where color can drive away the depressing impression.
Paint = semi-finished product
Paint alone is not enough. Paint must also be applied. That requires skilled knowledge and craftsmanship, regardless of whether the handler is a professional painter, a sprayer or a DIY enthusiast and regardless of where in the world he lives and works. The paint and the handling must be attuned to each other; they form one entity. For this reason Akzo Nobel supplies not only paint, but also services in the form of information, technical training, supervision of complex projects, recommendations in the area of systems, application equipment and coloring. All this offers the best guarantee that the semi-finished paint product results in sound paint work in the hands of the handler.
Paint = finished product
From a technical production viewpoint paint is mainly the result of an intensive mixing and milling process. Here a homogenous finished product is obtained from extremely diverse raw materials - bonding agent, pigment and solvent being the most important. Research determines the composition, based on desires from the international market and use of all chemical possibilities.
Environmental requirements play an increasingly important role in this: development is moving clearly in the direction of environmentally justified products containing little or even no solvent. A system of integral quality control manages and controls the entire production process.
Who is Sikkens exactly?
Up until now we have been talking mainly about paint and services. Now however it is time to say something about Sikkens itself. Sikkens is a make of Akzo Nobel Coatings, the paint - or else coatings -group of Akzo Nobel. The Sikkens brand is actively sold in Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Spain, the United States, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. Sikkens products are exported to a large number of other countries.
Sikkens was founded in 1792 in Groningen and moved to Sassenheim in 1938. The Akzo Nobel establishment in Sassenheim is still the heart of the Sikkens organization. Management of the brand takes place in Sassenheim for both car repair lacquers and decorative coatings.
Distribution of car repair lacquers and decorative coatings in the Netherlands is taken care of by the central distribution center in Breda and further distribution is done by a network of Sikkens Centers.
Research
Sikkens' research focuses largely on the existing products. The quality of these is continuously improved and adjusted to the latest developments,
opinions and materials. The result is often greater durability, combined with a finer appearance. Recipe monitoring with refined computer techniques makes it possible to react quickly to changes in the range of raw materials. This monitoring also prevents needless expansion of the raw material range.
Much attention is given in the research to the safety, environment and health aspects of products and systems. This is gone into in further detail in the section about Safety.
Innovation is not the largest part of research, but is the most important branch for the future. The water based lacquers, low solvent and solvent free coatings are the center of attention here.
Water based lacquers have the reputation of being environmentally friendly products, and this is not completely unjustified. Quality standards attuned to traditional products often (still) hinder the introduction of these types of materials. Surprising results have already been achieved, above all with base lacquers and chassis paints in the car industry. The products already introduced naturally comply with the highest quality standards.
The development of the low solvent and solvent free coatings, also known under the name medium and high solids, is also of extremely great importance. The research is focusing on products with a high content of solid substance. Products containing approximately 60% of solid substance are counted as being the medium solids. From approximately 70% of solid substance upwards, high solids are involved. The advantage of these products is the large coat thickness that can be sprayed at one pass, which therefore has a labor saving effect. These products are also interesting from an environmental point of view, since only a limited percentage of solvent has to evaporate, while less energy is needed for drying. The medium and high solids have already captured themselves a permanent place in the construction sector. Much attention is being given in the research to expanding the application area for these types of products.
As a manufacturer Akzo Nobel can be convinced of the quality of its Sikkens products, but conviction alone is not enough. It will have to be evident both internally and to the customers that the products comply with certain requirements, based on objective measurements. In the case of inspections therefore, unity of working methods and equipment - and checking on the continued existence of that unity - is a necessity. A system of standardization and calibration has been set up for the whole research organization; this makes the quality control system, including inspections and measurements, transparent to the customers. Goods receipt inspections at our customers can often be omitted because of this. The measurement methods are as much as possible in line with internationally established procedures.
Safety
Safety is a comprehensive term. It involves products and production, transport, use by the handler, even the ultimate destruction of the product. This is why so many people are involved in it. Overall the term safety relates to four aspects: Recipes, Production, Consumer, Environment.
Recipes in this connection are understood to be all of the raw materials, semi-finished products and finished products. When developing products there is an endless range of raw materials to choose from – a number that is still expanding almost daily. The choice can vary between the most innocent – water – to the most poisonous or damaging, such as mercury, asbestos and cresol. Some of these substances are prohibited by law, others have been put on an Akzo Nobel "black list" – in anticipation of new legislation, also in a European context – and consequently are no longer applied.
The production process is adequately safeguarded, which means that undesirable substances are prevented from getting into our product. That is a part of quality control that must be watertight.
What is involved in production is the safety of our own employees. Personal protection items are available for this (glasses, masks, gloves and so on), and the necessary measures have been taken in the company to create a working climate that is as pleasant and healthy as possible (intensive air replacement for example).
The safety of the consumer concerns the company just as much. We supply as safe a product as possible, but consideration must be given to the fact that we are not making a product "for drinking". Paint is a product we must work with sensibly. The information to the consumer – regardless of whether this is a DIY enthusiast or a professional handler – must therefore be as clear as possible. The greatest possible attention is given to labeling, and this is in line with the European and national legal directives.
The environment. In the context of the term safety we particularly mean the burden on the environment during the product’s manufacture, application, use and destruction phases.
Why is so much attention given to the safety of Sikkens products? Because it is legally prescribed? Yes, obviously – but not just that. One of Akzo Nobel’s objectives is to conduct itself in society as a good citizen. That means that the laws and rules are complied with, not just to the letter, but also in the spirit, in accordance with agreements with decreeing and controlling bodies and organizations, and where possible associating with the applicable interpretations in society.
Environment
In the context of the term safety we particularly mean the burden on the environment during the product's manufacture, application, use and destruction phases.
Why is so much attention given to the safety of Sikkens products? Because it is legally prescribed? Yes, obviously - but not just that. One of Akzo Nobel's objectives is to conduct itself in society as a good citizen. That means that the laws and rules are complied with, not just to the letter, but also in the spirit, in accordance with agreements with decreeing and controlling bodies and organizations, and where possible associating with the applicable interpretations in society.
Color
Color - the most visible property of paint. With the exception of the colorless varnishes, every coating has a color; here we also count black and white as colors - despite all discussion about this.
Color is a pleasing but not an easy property of paint - because what would the world be without color! From a technical production point of view the ability to copy color demands a thorough inspection of raw materials (pigments) and often the work of the color creator. This latter can be linked to a computer with both the eye - and the skill of the master inspector guarantees a correct opinion - and color measurement equipment. It could not be more accurate and objective.
When creating colors on the color mixing machine the color accuracy depends on the color pastes and the mixing recipe. The creation of mixing recipes was a huge job. This does mean that it has become possible for customers to have the color they want immediately.
In the area of application color is no easy property of paint either. Taste cannot be disputed - and there will always therefore be differences of opinion. To many however it is also difficult for them to imagine what the color "does" on or in a building, a construction, an object. In that case the Sikkens Color Advice Office, established in 1947, can issue an expert recommendation.
Communication about color had hardly been started until the beginning of 1978. What one person referred to as grass green was bilious green to another: different names for one and the same color - or the same name for different colors. This confusion of tongues was brought to an end by the introduction of the ACC-system: a color coding system that excludes all misunderstandings. Over the course of several years it was worked out by a group of aesthetic, technical and laboratory specialists and is founded on exact, objective color measurement linked to a computer calculation program that ensures that the result of the physical measurement in the code is also visually acceptable. This ACC-system can be applied not only to paint, but also to other color carriers, such as textiles (curtains), paper (wallpaper) and plastic.
Car repair lacquers
There are two requirements head and shoulders above the rest in the car repair lacquers sector: speed of supply and color. Since the distribution establishments and many car spray shops were equipped with Sikkens color mixing machines these requirements do not form a problem. On its own this is a correct observation, but states the matter a bit too simply. Nothing more has to be said about speed of supply: that is guaranteed. Color in car repair lacquers is a different story. A correct color measurement is incredibly important. The human eye alone is not suited to this where copying colors is involved. Sikkens has at its disposal the equipment and calculation programs to describe accurately the characteristic of colors.
Would you like more information about Car repair lacquers? The Car Refinishes business unit has its own site: http://www.cr.akzonobel.com.
Decorative Coatings
The Sikkens range goes from the traditionally known wall paints, base and finishing lacquers in different types and hundreds of colors, to synthetic materials for concrete repair, cavity wall fillings for insulation, antistatic or fungal resistant wall finishes and polyurethane coatings for floor finishing: a range containing solutions for almost every technical building problem.
The Sikkens range goes from the traditionally known wall paints, base and finishing lacquers in different types and hundreds of colors, to synthetic materials for concrete repair, cavity wall fillings for insulation, antistatic or fungal resistant wall finishes and polyurethane coatings for floor finishing: a range containing solutions for almost every technical building problem.
The decorative coatings market can be divided into new construction and maintenance, in which the objects vary from a simple single family home to the most complex utility building, from offices to factory buildings. The paintwork in new construction is not limited to the building site. A preceding phase is the timber industry where frames, doors and so on are not only produced but also frequently given a base paint system. Finishing lacquer is then applied on the building site. Although application methods differ - in the timber industry flow coating, spray and plunge bath, on the building site the brush and roller - and consequently the products are also formulated differently, there is still a clear relationship which guarantees a high quality finish.
Maintenance is no more or less than regular application of a new paint coat or a completely new paint system. Renovation may also be seen as a - quite substantial - item of maintenance. Paint is needed for this, but also synthetic materials: repair mortars for concrete for example.
It also holds true here that synchronization of the mortar and paint products is essential for a flawless finish. And do cavity wall fillings containing Ureum Formaldehyde - or UF-foam not likewise belong to the group of modern synthetic materials?
New construction - maintenance - paint - synthetic products. But the story does not end here, even if that paint belongs to the best that is produced and the fame of these products travels far beyond the country's borders. It goes without saying that Sikkens supplies high quality products. That the paint systems offer long-lasting protection likewise. These are matters that are guaranteed - even in writing. Akzo Nobel counts one of its tasks as thinking with the painter, architect and customer and advising them in an extremely broad sense. This advisory function lies at both the technical and the aesthetic level.