CoatingsWorld: What Will the Coatings Industry Look like in 2050?
Thinking 27 years ahead is a daunting task. The vice president of R&D at Hempel gives his take on how new paint technologies are shaping the future and how our world could look by 2050.
What is certain, paint and coatings will have multiple functions in the future. Coatings will have to protect and also harvest free energy from the sun. Smart coatings are the future. VOCs will be completely removed and the industry will even go beyond liquid paint.
For example, the bridge will be a new lightweight steel design that is being maintained while you cross it…by autonomous beetle-like robots climbing the bridge to scrape the original coating and drone flying behind to apply fresh surface protection. The original coating can be 100% recycled back into new paint.
When you arrive home, you flick on your living room wall with a swipe of your finger and the surface lights up the entire wall in an interactive screen.
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