Customer
Leading American Industrial Paint Manufacturer 

Challenge
A U.S.-based industrial coatings producer supplying equipment and structural steel markets was under pressure to:

• Reduce overall formulation cost in its high-volume black alkyd and epoxy systems
• Improve batch-to-batch consistency in jetness and gloss, especially on large structures where colour variation is easily visible
• Shorten mill-base dispersion time to keep up with increasing demand without adding new equipment

Their existing carbon black grade delivered acceptable performance but required high loadings and long dispersion cycles to hit jetness and gloss targets.

Solution
ICI Carbon partnered with the customer’s R&D and production teams to trial JET COAT in two key product lines: a black epoxy primer and a high-build industrial topcoat.

Implementation steps:

• Side-by-side lab evaluations using JET COAT vs. the incumbent pigment at comparable and reduced loadings
• Adjustments to the grind vehicle and dispersant package to fully leverage JET COAT’s dispersion profile
• Pilot-scale production runs to validate gloss, jetness, and flow under real manufacturing conditions

Results

After full conversion to JET COAT in the selected product lines, the customer achieved:

• 21% reduction in pigment cost per litre of finished coating, with no compromise on performance
• 10–12% improvement in jetness (ΔL*), resulting in cleaner, more uniform blacks and better hiding on welds and edges
• 30% reduction in dispersion time, significantly increasing throughput on existing milling equipment

The improved cost-to-performance ratio allowed the customer to maintain competitive pricing while strengthening margins in a highly price-sensitive industrial segment.