OREANDA-NEWS. Growing environmental awareness and stringent legal regulations are driving strong demand for waterborne coatings in China. Ashland is helping meet this demand with innovative ingredients for coatings. Ashland this week received a Ringier 2016 Coating Technology Innovation Award for Aquaflow XLS 530 non-ionic associate thickener. It marks the sixth time Ashland has been acknowledged with this prestigious award.

The Ringier Technology Innovation Awards recognize companies that have made significant contributions for the advancement of the industry. The awards are considered to be among the most prestigious in China’s coatings industry.

“I am very proud that an Ashland innovative coating ingredient is again being recognized," said William Zhao, general manager, Ashland Specialties Ingredients, Greater China. "Ashland is well positioned to help manufacturers solve reformulation challenges for both existing products and also to develop new products to meet China’s rapidly evolving environmental regulations in the coating industry. We are transforming the way customers and prospects think about paint. We are committed to creating sustainable chemistries which not only enhance the performance efficiency, but also enable our customers manage more strict environmental standards."

Aquaflow XLS 530 non-ionic associate thickener is a high-performance, nonionic synthetic associative thickener (NSAT) that provides exceptional in-can, application and final finish properties to waterborne industrial and wood coatings. It is a highly efficient, low-shear effective liquid thickener that provides an optimized balance of leveling with exceptional sag-resistance through a unique engineered structure recovery behavior.

Aquaflow XLS 530 non-ionic associate thickener allows paint manufacturers to design and produce the next generation of paints and coatings to comply with the latest environmental standards. It is supplied as low-viscosity liquid that is APEO (Alkylphenol ethoxylates) free, and free of organic tin.

“We understand the performance challenges that coating manufacturers are facing. Aquaflow XLS 530 non-ionic associate thickener is one of Ashland’s innovative solutions that address a multitude of performance attributes.” said Richard Cho, global marketing director, industrial specialties, Ashland.

Aquaflow XLS 530 non-ionic associate thickener is just one product in the XLS line. The company offers a full range of NSAT rheology modifiers. The Aquaflow NLS and NMS lines are formulated for low-shear and mid-shear performance, respectively. These three product lines, along with Ashland’s Natrosol™ HEC, Natrosol Performax™ HEC and Natrosol™ Plus HMHEC, give paint makers the tools they need to formulate for almost any application.