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Over the years, smart coatings have been tacitly defined as the most functional of functional coatings, agrees Oleg Figovsky, director of R&D for INRC Polymate (Israel), Green Coating, Inc., and Nanotech Industries, Inc. (USA). He adds, though, that the functionality of coatings and other materials has changed, and a coating that might have been thought of as smart in the past may not be considered as such now. “Over time, one generation of smart coatings becomes merely functional, and a new generation of coatings takes over in the smart coatings category.”
In addition to generating dozens of R&D projects all over the world and several conferences, Figovsky believes that in the future, smart coatings will create protectable intellectual property (IP), avoid commoditization of coatings products, and lead to a stream of new products over a sustained period of time. “The trend toward a better IP environment will attract new attention for smart coatings businesses from venture and angel capitalists. All of these trends suggest that smart coatings (and smart materials more generally) will be a substantial business opportunity going forward. We expect to see large firms make substantial investments in this area; some have already. These firms will include not just coatings companies, but also the large glass firms and other companies higher up the supply chain,” he observes.
