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Three Permoglaze Professional products, vinyl matt, high opacity matt and gloss have just undergone a radical overhaul and a thorough programme of performance trials against their nearest competitors.
The manufacturer was keen to see if its premium professional coatings range could be improved upon and sent its three best selling Permoglaze Professional products, used day in day out in high volumes, back into the Akzo Nobel labs for the scientists to assess and reformulate. The aim of the project was to see if they could improve true product quality and performance, based on key criteria identified by professional users, namely:
- • Coverage- in terms of overall opacity, and sheer hiding power'
- • Spreading rates
- • In-can appearance
- • Distribution of the product on the substrate
There are a few ways Akzo Nobel could have increased the 'perception’ of quality without delivering any real performance improvements. They could have simply boosted the thickeners in the formulations. This might have made the product appear to offer more opacity, but it wouldn't have delivered any benefits in application.
They could have thinned the paint to give better spreading rates, but this would have meant losing out in terms of opacity. They could have added a cheap colourant to the mix to aid the paint to give better spreading rates, but this would have meant losing out in terms of opacity. They could have added a cheap colourant to the mix to aid obliteration, (as others have done in the past), but that would have meant a loss of whiteness and would have been cheating!
Instead the laboratory team took a scientific approach to ensure that all the superior characteristics of the existing products were retained. The expensive polymers had to stay. The durability of finish and the ease of application were nonnegotiable'.
To improve opacity, whiteness and spreading rates, without affecting other key attributes, the only solution was to increase the levels of pigmentation in every tin of paint. Despite the fact that titanium dioxide is an extremely expensive ingredient, this is the route the scientists took.
Once the formulations were perfected on paper, the new improved products were put through a rigorous testing programme. Laboratory technicians teamed up with Akzo Nobel's technical services experts and their national training team to put each of the three new formulations through their paces.
Weeks of 'blind testing' took place under simulated 'site conditions'. New Permoglaze Professional gloss, high opacity matt and vinyl matt were each tested against their original formulations and their six closest competitors. The contents of each tin were visually examined, stirred and sniffed, and then given ratings on appearance and odour. Every product was applied by brush and roller, and then thoroughly assessed for wet opacity, dry opacity. Obliteration power and spreading rates. Tins were weighed before and after each application to work out precise usage rates.
The results were gathered, analysed and presented. They were indisputable. The new Permoglaze Professional formulations were ranked number one for each product assessed. However. more evidence was required from outside the company before decisions were to be taken on their market introduction.
A final round of research testing was undertaken with several major contractors. Some were customers, others were used to using competitors' products. Again, teams of applicators assessed the new formulations and came up with the same positive results.
The new Permoglaze formulations were the best of those tested. (One contractor was so impressed with the product he was testing, he has since switched his allegiance from a competitor's product to Permoglaze).
The research was complete and with such unequivocal results, the decision was taken to move towards the new formulations. The 'New Science' name was chosen to underline the scientific approach taken for this major project - and give a visible assurance on every tin to highlight that the product inside is tried, tested and as good as it gets.
On the basis of this research, and using all the key criteria that professional decorators use to judge performance, Akzo Nobel Decorative Coatings is claiming that the new and improved Permoglaze Professional vinyl matt, high opacity matt and gloss, all in white and magnolia, are the best of their type available today.
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