Home living
Homes, the places where people spend much of their time, need to be a safe, clean and durable environment. As the leading chemical supplier for interior paints, furniture materials and ingredients for home care products, BASF provides innovative and sustainable solutions to enable healthy indoor living in ordinary households.
- Improving the value chain of the furniture industry
- MDI adhesive for wooden furniture
In view of higher environmental standards and greater consumer demand, Chinese furniture manufacturers are working to enhance sustainability and product quality through innovation in both materials and design. The goal for leading furniture brand owners is to secure long-term access to sustainable material and change the way the industry works. It is vital that all suppliers comply with their specific technical standards.
With our expertise and global know-how, BASF has been collaborating with leading local furniture manufacturers and provided solutions from design to production. Through workshops with designers and manufacturers for new furniture models, new ideas were translated into solutions. BASF’s Innovative “shape-in-once” technology for molded foam enabled design flexibility and shortened the production process. Polyurethane and engineering plastic solutions were also successfully applied by furniture manufacturers in East and South China. The collaboration contributed to the sustainability goals of the furniture brand owners and improved quality along the value chain of the Chinese furniture industry.
In view of higher environmental standards and greater consumer demand, Chinese furniture manufacturers are working to enhance sustainability and product quality through innovation in both materials and design. The goal for leading furniture brand owners is to secure long-term access to sustainable material and change the way the industry works. It is vital that all suppliers comply with their specific technical standards.
With our expertise and global know-how, BASF has been collaborating with leading local furniture manufacturers and provided solutions from design to production. Through workshops with designers and manufacturers for new furniture models, new ideas were translated into solutions. BASF’s
Methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI), a chemical used primarily for the production of polyurethane foam, is also used to make high-performance adhesives for wooden furniture. It ensures much stronger binding of wood and a longer shelf life, with permanent water resistance at room temperature. MDI can effectively replace phenol formaldehyde or melamine fortified urea formaldehyde in most wood-based panels.
BASF is extending its global expertise and local production capabilities of MDI adhesive technology to the wood-based panels in China. BASF offers a comprehensive solution that can be used with China’s wide variety of woods, and has tailored local production processes to the specific demands of Chinese manufacturers. This results in higher quality, stability and better physical properties than similar products in the market. With MDI production in Caojing, Shanghai, and Chongqing, BASF supplies MDI adhesive solutions to Dare Global Wood, Asia’s largest manufacturer of wood-based panels.
- Supporting industry transition to concentrated liquid laundry detergents
- Extending industrial cleaning technology to household automatic dishwashers
The Chinese detergent industry has been moving from powder to liquid laundry detergents (LLDs) over the past decade. Compared to powder detergents, LLDs are more convenient and safer to use, with appealing product esthetics and lower resource consumption. The latest concentrated and ultra concentrated liquid laundry detergents (CLLDs) will further save energy and water.
Combining the functional polymer Sokalan® HP 20, the mild and natural based surfactant alkyl polyglucoside and the high performing optical brightener Tinopal® CBS-X, BASF has developed an innovative solution for CLLDs for Chinese households. Just a small amount of detergent, easily diluted into water, results in high performance washing. To this end, BASF works closely with the China Cleaning Industry Association (CCIA) and leading companies to promote the transition to CLLDs among local detergent manufacturers. Together with this association, in 2016 and 2017 BASF co-organized several industry forums on this topic. BASF helped a top Chinese detergent manufacturer to develop its first CLLD. The solution has now also been applied in products from other major LLD producers, including regular LLD and detergent pods.
As automatic dishwashers are becoming popular in Chinese households, safe and highly efficient detergents with a lower environmental impact are in demand among manufacturers and consumers.
Previously applied in hotels and restaurants, the chelating agent Trilon® M is a high-performance phosphate alternative for automatic dishwashing detergents. Capable of binding hard water ions effectively with its small molecules, it can prevent lime scale buildup on the dishes during the dishwashing cycle. Suitable for applications in both liquid and solid forms, Trilon M is readily biodegradable and safe for both the environment and people. In 2017, it was applied in automatic dishwasher detergent by customers in China.
BASF has been a key member of CCIA and National Standardization Technical Committee on Surfactants and Detergents (SAC/TC272) for several years, cooperating closely with associations and customers. In 2017, we further proposed a list of components for food contact detergents and provided relevant safety and technical information, including Trilon M, to the China Research Institute of Daily Chemical Industry. The proposed components will serve as a reference for industry associations in establishing a positive list of food contact detergent raw materials.
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- FormaldpureTM catalyst removes formaldehyde in the air
- Near-zero VOC dispersion for fresher indoor air
Formaldehyde is a common indoor air pollutant found in homes and office buildings, and at elevated levels it can be highly irritating to the eyes, nose and lungs. Leveraging its broad catalyst portfolio and experience, BASF has introduced its formaldehyde removal solution Formaldpure in China, the first market before going global. By oxidizing formaldehyde catalytically into carbon dioxide and water, Formaldpure can purify the air in residential, commercial and public buildings, and use less energy than carbon-based solutions. Cross-regional teams from BASF Greater China and the United States successfully developed a new catalyst and coating technology for this new field of application and ensured it performs efficiently and durably at room temperature. They also worked closely with international and local original equipment manufacturers, distributors and raw material suppliers to tailor-make the solution for various Chinese air purifier brands. BASF will further extend its catalyst solutions to tackle indoor pollutants other than formaldehyde.
Chinese consumers and property developers are increasingly looking for safer products with less volatile organic compounds (VOCs), low odor, and high functional performance such as stain resistance and high durability. In response to the market demand, BASF brought business teams, researchers, developers, technicians and production experts together in the innovation process to find the right polymer dispersions for architectural coatings. Through close collaboration with key paint producers from an early stage and with first-hand feedback from customers, the team developed the innovative third-generation water-based premium dispersion for interior paints, Acronal® ECO 7653. This new solution delivers near-zero VOCs, with its TVOC (total volatile organic compounds) level as low as 0.27g/L, much lower than the 20g/L required by the Chinese Green Standard (JG/T 481-2015). Although low VOCs do not necessarily mean low odor, an odor sniffing test proves that paints with Acronal ECO 7653 have the lowest possible odor level. Acronal ECO 7653 also accommodates stain resistance and burnish resistance properties in paints, and is suitable for both residential and commercial buildings and mission critical infrastructures, such as operating theaters, isolated wards, MRI system room, radiology laboratories, and microelectronic manufacturing.
