Covestro to Open Automated Laboratory for Optimizing Coating and Adhesive Formulations
Coating and adhesive manufacturers face numerous challenges in today’s competitive market. They must continuously innovate and optimize their products to maintain market share, all while ensuring sustainability, regulatory compliance, and efficiency. A crucial component of these challenges lies in the development of high-performance binders and crosslinkers, which are essential for determining the properties of coatings and adhesives. Covestro, a global leader in material science, is addressing these needs by announcing the opening of a state-of-the-art, automated laboratory in 2025. This new facility will enable the company to optimize coating and adhesive formulations more efficiently, providing better support to its customers and helping to meet the growing demand for sustainable and circular products.
Addressing Industry Pressures through Automation
In the face of increasingly complex demands from customers, Covestro recognizes the need for faster and more efficient formulation development. The new automated laboratory will streamline the process of testing and developing formulations using Covestro’s binders and crosslinkers. Thomas Büsgen, the head of the new laboratory, explains, “With our automated laboratory, we can work together with our customers on the future of coatings and adhesives. Because it operates almost autonomously, it learns from both existing knowledge and newly generated data, making formulation optimization faster and more precise. We are entering a new era of modern research.”
The laboratory will focus on providing more efficient, precise, and scalable solutions to meet the specific needs of coating and adhesive manufacturers. Through this innovative approach, Covestro aims to help customers meet the challenge of developing high-quality formulations that balance performance, sustainability, and cost-effectiveness.
The Role of Binders and Crosslinkers in Coatings and Adhesives
Coatings and adhesives are complex products typically composed of 7 to 15 different components, including binders, crosslinkers, pigments, solvents, and additives. The combination of these elements determines the final product’s key properties, such as hardness, adhesion, opacity, gloss, and durability. Developing the right formulation requires extensive testing and optimization to achieve the desired balance between these properties.
Covestro’s automated laboratory will specifically test formulations incorporating its range of binders and crosslinkers. These materials play a critical role in determining the final characteristics of the coating or adhesive. By using a wide variety of testing parameters and experimental designs, Covestro aims to enhance the overall performance of these formulations. The ability to explore a vast array of possible combinations will help companies create tailored solutions that meet customer-specific needs more efficiently.
The Power of Automation: Expanding Testing Capabilities
The new automated laboratory will provide Covestro with unprecedented capabilities to test coatings and adhesives. By incorporating automation and computer-aided design, the laboratory can run extensive test series that were previously difficult or time-consuming to perform. This expansion of testing capacity will relieve Covestro’s specialized laboratories of routine tasks, allowing them to focus more on unique customer projects and advanced research.
Martin Merkens, Head of Sales & Market Development for Covestro’s Coatings and Adhesives business entity in the EMLA region, states, “Our new automated laboratory gives us more possibilities for testing formulations. It frees our specialized labs from routine tasks and allows for a more systematic analysis of samples. This will significantly enhance our ability to focus on customer-specific solutions and explore approaches that we couldn’t have otherwise implemented.”
One of the most important benefits of the laboratory is its ability to test a broader range of raw materials, including bio-based or recycled materials, which are increasingly important in the shift toward more sustainable products. The lab will accelerate the testing of these alternative raw materials and evaluate how they impact the final product’s performance, especially within the context of circular economy goals.
Operating 24/7: Tens of Thousands of Tests Annually
The new automated laboratory will operate continuously, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, allowing for a high throughput of tests. Covestro has set an ambitious goal of running tens of thousands of tests each year, which will push the boundaries of testing speed, precision, and variety. This scale of operation is a significant leap forward in the coatings and adhesives industry, setting new standards for efficiency and data generation.
One of the key advantages of this automated system is its ability to generate structured data at a large scale. The lab will accumulate valuable insights into formulation possibilities and factors that influence the performance of coatings and adhesives. Covestro plans to leverage this vast amount of data through machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence to continuously refine and improve formulations.
As part of this process, the laboratory will use artificial intelligence to predict new experiments based on specific property goals. These predictions will be tested in the automated system, creating a self-learning feedback loop that accelerates the development of optimized formulations. This cutting-edge approach will provide Covestro with a deeper understanding of material behaviors and enable faster innovation.
A Comprehensive Approach: From Raw Materials to Application Conditions
In addition to testing various coating and adhesive formulations, the automated laboratory will also perform material tests on raw materials themselves, providing insights into their suitability for different applications. The laboratory is equipped to simulate real-world conditions by applying formulations in varying climates, allowing for testing that closely mimics the actual environment in which the product will be used.
The ability to simulate diverse application conditions further strengthens the laboratory’s capacity to develop formulations that perform consistently across different environments. This capability is particularly valuable for industries where environmental conditions, such as temperature and humidity, play a crucial role in product performance.
Furthermore, Covestro’s digitalization efforts enable seamless communication between the automated laboratory and more specialized testing facilities. This integration ensures that data collected in the automated lab can be forwarded easily to other labs for additional analysis, allowing for a more comprehensive evaluation of each formulation.
Showcasing Innovation at the European Coatings Show 2025
Covestro will present its new automated laboratory and other innovative material solutions at the European Coatings Show 2025 in Nuremberg, Germany, from March 25 to 27. Experts from various industries, including automotive, printing & packaging, and construction & architecture, will be available to discuss new approaches to coatings and adhesives. Covestro’s presence at the event will allow customers and industry professionals to learn more about the capabilities of the new laboratory and how it can enhance the development of high-performance coatings and adhesives.
At the Covestro booth (Hall 4A, Stand 438), visitors will have the opportunity to explore the company’s innovative solutions and discuss collaborative opportunities with the experts in application development.
Conclusion
The opening of Covestro’s automated laboratory in 2025 marks a significant step forward in the company’s commitment to providing advanced, sustainable solutions for the coatings and adhesives industry. By harnessing the power of automation, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, the laboratory will not only increase the speed and precision of formulation development but also help meet the growing demand for sustainable materials. As the industry moves toward circular economy goals, Covestro’s investment in this cutting-edge facility positions the company as a leader in driving innovation and helping its customers meet the evolving challenges of the coatings and adhesives market.
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About Covestro:
Covestro is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of high-quality polymer materials and their components. With its innovative products, processes and methods, the company helps enhance sustainability and the quality of life in many areas. Covestro supplies customers around the world in key industries such as mobility, building and living, as well as the electrical and electronics sector. In addition, polymers from Covestro are also used in sectors such as sports and leisure, telecommunications and health, as well as in the chemical industry itself.
The company is geared completely to the circular economy. In addition, Covestro aims to achieve climate neutrality for its Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 2035, and the Group’s Scope 3 emissions are also set to be climate neutral by 2050. Covestro generated sales of EUR 14.2 billion in fiscal year 2024. At the end of 2024, the company had 46 production sites worldwide and employed approximately 17,500 people (calculated as full-time equivalents).
