Page 170 - CW E-Magazine (8-4-2025)

News from Abroad

DIGITALISATION
Covestro’s new automated lab to aid development

of coating and adhesive formulations

Germany’s Covestro has announced
that it will soon open a specifically deve-
loped, automated laboratory for optimis-
ing coating and adhesive formulations.

“With our automated laboratory, we
can work together with our customers
on the future of coatings and adhesives.
Because it operates almost completely
autonomously and learns from our exis-
ting knowledge and data lake as well
as newly generated data, it makes the
process of optimising and developing
formulations many times more efficient
and precise. This allows us to optimise
existing formulations faster or even
develop completely new formulations
for and together with our customers,” er-aided design of test series and the bio-based or recycled materials, can
informed Mr. Thomas Büsgen, head of use of automation. be tested faster and evaluated for their
the laboratory. properties in the final product.”
“Our new automated laboratory
Specifically, the new laboratory will gives us more possibilities for testing The automated laboratory will gene-
test formulations with Covestro binders formulations. It relieves our specialised rate a large amount of structured data.
and crosslinkers for coatings and adhe- laboratories of their standard tasks and The knowledge about formulation possi-
sives. Their clever selection ensures can analyse samples more systematically. bilities and influencing factors thus will
properties such as hardness, adhesion, This allows us to focus our expertise grow rapidly. The collected data, com-
opacity, gloss, or durability. Such formu- and experience even more on custo- bined with measurement data from ex-
lations typically consist of seven to 15 mer-specific topics or try approaches we isting studies, will be evaluated using
components, whose combination deter- couldn’t have implemented otherwise,” special machine learning algorithms to
mines the properties of the final prod- explained Mr. Martin Merkens, Head of further improve formulations. Artificial
uct. The resulting high number of pos- Sales & Market Development EMLA intelligence will also be used to predict
sible combinations means that standard in Covestro’s Coatings and Adhesives new experiments based on property
formulations are usually used. The new business entity. “This will particularly goals and simultaneously verify them
laboratory now enables more extensive help us in the area of circular economy: in the automated laboratory – creating
test series, also thanks to the comput- Alternative raw materials, for example a self-learning system.

STALLED BID
Wood Group extends takeover talks with UAE’s Sidara

The troubled British oilfield ser- Sidara – a privately held network of required to either announce a firm in-
vices and engineering firm, John Wood engineering and design companies run tention to make an offer for the company
Group, has agreed to extend a deadline from the United Arab Emirates – now or announce that it does not intend to
for talks with Dubai-based Sidara for has until April 17 to make an offer or make an offer by March 24, 2025. The
a possible takeover offer after a failed walk away. In accordance with appli- extension would allow time for the
attempt six months ago. cable legislation in the UK, Sidara was results of an independent review of

170 Chemical Weekly April 8, 2025

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