AkzoNobel cooperates with CoatingAI: AI-based powder coating software
AkzoNobel's Powder Coating division and CoatingAI have signed a collaboration agreement. The novel AI-based software Flightpath automatically optimizes equipment settings such as gun movement to reduce defects and overspray and optimize powder consumption.
Novel software, jointly developed by AkzoNobel's Powder Coating business and CoatingAI, uses artificial intelligence to help customers improve the application process and reduce their carbon footprint. The industry-first technology, called Flightpath, optimizes equipment settings to reduce defects and overspray and improve powder consumption - helping to reduce costs, avoid rework and save time and energy. The AI-based software has been in development for two years and both parties have now signed an exclusivity agreement after meeting at AkzoNobel's Paint the Future start-up competition in 2021. "We are delighted to partner with CoatingAI and strengthen our technical service capabilities," says Remco Maassen van den Brink, Marketing Director of AkzoNobel's Powder Coatings business unit. "We are proactively looking for ways to help our customers make their operations more sustainable and this will significantly enhance our ability to help them achieve better results - while contributing to our own goal of halving carbon emissions across the value chain by 2030." Marlon Boldrini, CEO of CoatingAI, added: "Working with AkzoNobel has helped accelerate our vision from day one. Our solution, built on the power of artificial intelligence and AkzoNobel's technical expertise, will not only increase efficiency for customers, but also promote sustainability in the powder coating industry."
The software enables customers to optimize equipment settings such as gun movement and achieve smoother, more consistent coverage with fewer errors - all thanks to the AI-powered recommendations. The software requires no complex integration and continuously adjusts its recommended parameters as conditions change. "Working with a startup like CoatingAI that is pushing the boundaries and changing the coating industry means we can accelerate our own powder revolution and offer services that are second to none," adds Maassen van den Brink. "It is the latest example of how we are constantly innovating and looking for new ways to offer our customers the most advanced and sustainable solutions." Earlier this year, the company's Powder Coatings division became the first in the industry to launch an open-access online energy savings calculator for all powder coating users. It helps customers better understand how even small changes in the coating process can have a big impact to become more energy efficient.