Univar helps specialised coatings manufacturer Castellano reshape its product portfolio to eliminate the 'risk provisions' on their data sheets, by supplying a safer match of raw materials
Univar, a world leader in chemical distribution, has again demonstrated its ability to deliver first class technical service to industry customers. The company assisted Castellano, a privately owned, Marseilles-based French manufacturer of highly specialised marine and aviation paint systems, to overcome the technical challenge involved in reshaping and re-supplying its product portfolio. 'All Castellano marine and aviation coatings result from our own R and D,' says Castellano Managing Director, Bernard Giovannoni: 'A short time ago we had an urgent need to reshape some of our formulae in a way that would enable us to remove the risk provisions from our data sheets.

Our objective was to upgrade our products without actually reformulating them, otherwise we would have had to ask our customers for revised product specifications and that would have presented many difficulties, both for us and them.

Working with the technical support of Univar France, we were able to identify and obtain an ideal, safer match of raw materials for our products, without changing either the specifications of the coatings or the formulations themselves.

This allowed us to eliminate the risks associated with earlier materials and, therefore, the need to state them in our technical literature.

We appreciate the service from Univar, its team is very responsive to our needs and we value the professionalism of their technical advice,' adds Giovannoni.

According to Nicolas Lehmann, Commercial Director of Univar France: 'In order to serve customers like Castellano well, one needs to be able to supply more than just a broad portfolio of chemicals.

It's only when you really understand your customer's markets and requirements that you can fully support them with the specific advice they need to develop niche products'.

Castellano was founded in 1850 and has been a supplier of marine coatings from the outset.

Over the years the marine market became progressively dominated by large multinational companies producing standard marine paints at very low cost.

This made it increasingly difficult for smaller suppliers to compete in the marketplace.

To combat this challenge Castellano opted to pursue business growth through the production of the highly specialised coatings required for applications in niche markets.

'In the early years many of our products were based on classical ingredients such as tar,' explains Bernard Giovannoni.

'However, over time our product line-up has advanced considerably and today we are active with a wide range of highly technical niche products, such as anti-skid coatings, radar absorbing paints, electromagnetic conductible coatings and special anti-fouling paints.

These increasingly sophisticated products are essential in the construction of today's naval vessels.

One of the most exotic products in our portfolio is probably an anti-fouling coating specially developed for submarines for the rubber tile cladding that absorbs sonar pulses.

This is truly a niche product but with a global market, with customers as far away as Australia and Singapore.' In addition to marine coatings, Castellano also supplies specialised paints for aviation applications.

'The aviation industry is as technically challenging as the marine sector and with many similar requirements that can be met by Castellano's complementary experience and expertise,' says Giovannoni.

Confirming this, for leading European helicopter manufacturer Eurocopter Castellano has developed a high gloss paint system deliverable in a complete spectrum of colours.

Apart from durability, these coatings must exhibit a complex of other properties, such as heat resistance, and resistance to oils, fuels and lubricants, as well as the toughness necessary to protect the airframe from extremes of weather and other forms of environmental degradation.