Coatings World Q&A with EPS: “One Platform, Many Possibilities: Rethinking Formulation Efficiency”

Coatings World Editor Kerry Pianoforte interviews Karl Booth, R&D Manager at EPS.

Q: EPS has been conducting research aimed at helping formulators simplify formulations and reduce portfolio complexity. Can you tell us about that work and why it is important for the industry?

A: We’re seeing a common challenge across the coatings industry. Manufacturers want to streamline their portfolios, reduce inventory complexity, and bring products to market faster, but they can’t afford to compromise on performance. That has led us to explore platform technologies that can work across multiple application spaces rather than developing a separate resin solution for every market segment.

Our recent work focused on understanding whether a single polymer platform could deliver the performance needed in both architectural coatings and sport court finish coats, two areas with different performance demands. The goal is to give formulators more flexibility while helping simplify formulation development and product portfolios.

Q: Architectural coatings and sport court finish coats have different end-use requirements. What makes this a meaningful technical challenge?

A: Architectural coatings are expected to provide long-term weatherability, color retention, dirt pickup resistance, adhesion, and overall exterior durability. Sport court finish coats face a different set of challenges, including mechanical wear, abrasion resistance, and the need to maintain performance in highly pigmented formulations.

What makes this work interesting is evaluating whether a common resin platform can meet the performance expectations of these different applications. If successful, it can provide formulators with greater flexibility and potentially reduce the need for multiple resin technologies across their portfolio.

Q: How did you evaluate whether the technology could meet those different demands?

A: We wanted to take a comprehensive approach. Laboratory testing is important, but it only tells part of the story. We evaluated coatings through a range of controlled performance tests and complemented that work with more than four years of real-world exterior exposure.

Using that combination of accelerated testing and long-term field data gives us a much better understanding of how a coating is likely to perform over time. It also helps us build stronger correlations between laboratory results and real-world durability.

Q: What did the results show?

A: One of the key technologies evaluated was EPS® 2736, a high-solids all-acrylic polymer developed for exterior architectural coatings. Throughout the study, it demonstrated strong performance across a range of formulations and sheen levels, delivering the durability characteristics formulators look for, including dirt pickup resistance, UV resistance, color retention, and performance over alkaline substrates.

What was particularly interesting was that the same polymer technology also performed well in sport court finish coat formulations, where flexibility, toughness, abrasion resistance, and pigment tolerance are critical. The results demonstrate how a carefully designed polymer platform can extend across traditionally separate application areas, giving formulators greater flexibility while helping reduce formulation complexity.

Q: Beyond the resin itself, what role does EPS play in helping customers apply these findings?

A: Developing innovative polymer technology is only part of the equation. Our team works closely with customers to understand their performance targets, optimize formulations, and address application-specific challenges. Because we work across a broad range of coating markets, we’re able to help customers leverage platform technologies in ways that simplify development while still meeting demanding performance requirements. That combination of polymer expertise, application knowledge, and formulation support is an important part of the value we bring.

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