BCD Chemie GmbH

Data protection

Privacy Policy


Executive Statement

BCD Chemie has established a set of binding corporate principles for Personal Data Protection commitment regardless of where your Personal Data is processed, to observe your privacy in line with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), valid since 25th of May 2018.

Purpose of Privacy Notice

This privacy policy aims to give you information on how BCD Chemie collects and processes your personal data through your use of this website, including any data you may provide through this website when you purchase a product or service.

Name and contact details of controller

You will find the respective controller in the site notice.

Logging

BCD Chemie’s web servers track of the pages visited on BCD Chemie´s website, the amount of time spent on those pages and the types of searches done on them. This automatically captures and stores the following information (which is transmitted by the visitor’s internet browser or browsing activity), depending on the selection of privacy settings upon visiting BCD Chemie’s website.
Additional personal data processing may take place following your preferences such as

1. Date and time of the server request
2. Geolocation
3. Type/version of Operating System
4. Type/version of Browser
5. Data transfer volume
6. Screen resolution
7. Accessed links and their status

As a result, BCD Chemie also records the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of visitors which is a unique number assigned dynamically assigned by Internet Service Providers (ISP) to every computer on the internet. This IP address, that BCD Chemie collects, may contain information that could be deemed identifiable.
BCD Chemie uses the information to prevent potentially illegal activities and to enforce our terms and conditions. BCD Chemie also uses a variety of technological systems to detect and address anomalous activity and to screen content to prevent abuse, such as spam. These efforts may, on occasion, result in a temporary or permanent suspension or termination of some functions for some users. BCD Chemie uses this information for statistical purposes, to find out which pages users visit and what products and services are of interest or could be of value to BCD Chemie web servers’ visitors.
We collect and process this data for the purpose of ensuring the security of this website, which is a legitimate interest in terms of GDPR. We delete or anonymise this kind of personal data automatically after 14 days.

Browser Cookies

Cookies are used by the BCD Chemie´s website to keep track of user sessions. A Cookie (also called web cookie, Internet cookie, browser cookie, or simply cookie) is a small piece of data sent from a website and stored on the user’s computer by the user’s web browser while the user is browsing to store often store your settings for a website, such as your preferred language or location, and/or information to help you enter a site without having to login. In effect, cookies tell the website that your browser has been to the site before.
Depending on your Browser Cookie consent selection of settings upon first visiting BCD Chemie´s website(s), BCD Chemie uses tracking cookies, third-party cookies and other technologies (e.g. web beacons) to process additional information, enable noncore functionalities on the BCD Chemie´s website and enable referenced third-party functions (such as a social media “share” link).
If you do not want a cookie placed on your computer in general or as a result of using a BCD Chemie website, you can disable cookies altogether by modifying the preferences section of your web browser. Note that, if you do so, some aspects of BCD Chemie´s website may be unavailable to you. If you choose to accept cookies on your hard drive, but wish to be informed of cookies usage on your visited sites, you may turn on a warning prompt by modifying the cookie-warning section also located in the preferences section of your web browser. In most cases Browser Cookies used by BCD Chemie are session-based and therefore last only for the duration of the user’s session, however in some cases BCD Chemie uses persistent Browser Cookie that remains on your hard drive and provides information about the session you are in and waits for the next time you use that site again.
This provides useful information to BCD Chemie to recognise frequent users, facilitate the user’s access to and use of the site, and allow a site to track usage behavior, which assists BCD Chemie in content improvements. Such cookies are used only for this purpose, and they are not used to identify users or to track their usage of other web sites.
The following cookies will only start, after you had given your consent via the cookie-banner.

_ga Purpose: distinguish users. Erasure after 2 years

_gid / Purpose: distinguish users. Erasure: after 24 hours

_gat Purpose: throttle request rate. Erasure after 1 minute

Web beacons

BCD Chemie may use “web beacons” technology on BCD Chemie’s websites or in marketing emails to track pages viewed or messages opened, the date and time you visited our site, the website you came from, the type of browser you are using, the type of operating system you are using, and the domain name and address of your internet service provider.
Web beacon is the use of various techniques used on web pages or email, to unobtrusively (usually invisibly) allow checking that a user has accessed the content. Common uses are email tracking and page tagging for web analytics. Alternative names are web bug, tracking bug, tag, pixel tag, single-pixel GIF’s or page tag.

DO NOT TRACK (DNT)

BCD Chemie web servers will respect your decision to opt out of our and third-party tracking services, including behavior advertising. This opt out shall be subject to your use of the DNT (do not track) setting in your web browser, however due to technology limitation, websites do not respond to DNT consumer browser settings. Currently there is no solid mechanism to guarantee DNT consumer browser settings effect on commercial websites.

Google Analytics

This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses cookies. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers usually in the United States, but possibly in the EU member states as well.
In case of activation of the IP anonymization, Google will truncate/anonymize the last octet of the IP address for Member States of the European Union as well as for other parties to the Agreement on the European Economic Area.
Only in exceptional cases, the full IP address is sent to and shortened by Google servers in the United States. On behalf of the website operator Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage to the website operator.
Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. You may refuse the use of Google cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser, see also Item 6 above. However, please note that if you do this, you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website. Furthermore you can prevent Google’s collection and use of data (cookies and IP address) by downloading and installing the browser plug-in available under https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en-GB.
You can prevent the capturing by Google Analytics by clicking on the following link. An opt-out cookie is set which prevents future collection of your data when you visit this website: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout
Here you will find more detailed information on Terms of Use und Data Protection: https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/ and under http://www.google.com/analytics/terms/us.html.
Google Analytics is further explained under the following Link https://www.google.com/analytics/. Please note that this website initializes Google Analytics with the setting “gat._anonymizeIp();” to ensure anonymized capturing by masking the last part of your IP addresses (IP masking).

Google Tag Manager

This website uses the Google Tag Manager. Google Tag Manager is a solution that allows marketers to manage website tags from applications such as Google Analytics through a single surface/interface. The Tool Tag Manager itself (which implements the tags) is a cookie-free domain and does not collect any personal data. The tool triggers other tags, which in turn may collect data under certain circumstances. Google Tag Manager does not access this data. If deactivation has been made at domain or cookie level, such deactivation remains in effect for all tracking tags that are implemented with Google Tag Manager.

LinkedIn Insight Tag

We use the “LinkedIn Insight Tag” provided by LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company, Wilton Place, Dublin 2, Ireland, on our website. When you visit our website, LinkedIn places a cookie in your browser. This cookie collects data such as the URL of the visited page, referrer URL, IP address, device and browser characteristics, and timestamps.

Purpose of Processing
The collected data is used to measure the effectiveness of our LinkedIn advertising campaigns, to generate statistical analyses, and to implement retargeting measures.

Use of Data
LinkedIn anonymizes direct identifiers within seven (7) days and deletes the remaining pseudonymized data after up to one hundred eighty (180) days. LinkedIn also uses the data for its own advertising purposes. For details, please refer to LinkedIn’s Privacy Policy.

Legal Basis
Processing is carried out exclusively on the basis of your consent pursuant to Article 6(1)(a) GDPR. The LinkedIn Insight Tag will only be activated after you have given your explicit consent via our cookie settings.

Withdrawal of Consent
You may withdraw your consent at any time via our cookie settings. Further information can be found in LinkedIn’s Privacy Policy:
https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy

Data Processing on our LinkedIn company page

We operate a company page on the social media platform LinkedIn to provide additional opportunities for information about our company and for interaction.
When you visit our LinkedIn company page or interact with it (e.g., by commenting, liking, or sending messages), your personal data may be processed. Information associated with the LinkedIn profile you use also regularly constitutes personal data. This includes, in particular:

– Messages and content you publish using your profile
– Interactions such as “likes” or comments
– Automatically collected information during your visit (e.g., technical data such as IP address, device information)

Data processing is carried out both by LinkedIn and by us as the operator of the company page. We have no influence on LinkedIn’s processing activities. For further information on LinkedIn’s data processing, please refer to LinkedIn’s Privacy Policy:
https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy

Joint Controllership pursuant to Article 26 GDPR
For certain processing activities related to our LinkedIn company page, we and LinkedIn act as joint controllers within the meaning of Article 26 GDPR. This specifically applies to the processing of so-called Page Insights data, which LinkedIn provides to us in aggregated form to evaluate the use of our page.
The agreement on joint controllership can be found here:
https://www.linkedin.com/legal/page-joint-controller-addendum

Essence of the agreement
LinkedIn assumes primary responsibility for processing Page Insights data and for fulfilling data subject rights. You can exercise your rights both with LinkedIn and with us.

Purposes and Legal Basis of Processing
Your personal data is processed for the following purposes:
– Communication and interaction with users (e.g., responding to messages or comments)
– Presentation of our company and services
– Analysis and evaluation of the use of our company page (Page Insights)
– Optimization of our content and marketing activities

Legal Basis
For communication and company representation: Article 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest).
Our legitimate interest lies in the effective external representation of our company and communication with prospects and customers.
For Page Insights and tracking: Depending on regional requirements, processing may require your consent pursuant to Article 6(1)(a) GDPR.
You have the right to object to processing based on legitimate interests at any time or withdraw your consent where applicable.

Business contacts

When we do business with you or the company you work for, we collect and use your information as follows. If not mentioned otherwise, we have received your data from you personally, your employer, or from publicly available sources. We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we use your personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are where appropriate.
Note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal data where more than one ground has been set out in the table below.
Purpose/activityData typeLawful basis for processing including basis of legitimate interest
Your registration as a new customer(a) First name, last name
(b) Business contact details such as email address and business address		Fulfillment of a contract with you
To process and deliver your order including: (a) Manage payments, fees and charges (b) Collect and recover money owed to us(a) First name, last name
(b) Business contact details such as e-mail address and business address (c) Company bank account (d) Transaction details		(a) Fulfillment of a contract with you (b) necessity for our legitimate interest (to collect debts)
To manage our relationship with you which will include: (a) Notifying you about changes to our terms or privacy policy (b) Asking you to leave a review or take a survey(a) First name, last name (b) Business contact details such as e-mail address and business address(a) Fulfillment of a contract with you (b) necessary to comply with legal obligations (c) necessary for our legitimate interest (to keep our records up to date and to investigate how our customers use our products/services)
To enable you to partake in a prize draw, competition or complete a survey(a) First name, last name (b) Business contact details such as e-mail address and business address(a) Fulfillment of a contract with you (b) necessary for our legitimate interest (to study how our customers use our products/services, for customer & business development)
Newsletter and other marketing communication

If you receive a newsletter from us, then we originally added you to the mailing list in compliance with the law applicable at the time of inclusion. The newsletter is subscribed by and with the help of a double opt-in, so that we can make sure that you are the right recipient. Double opt-in means that after filling in our form for signing in for our newsletter we will send you an e-mail to the mail-address you filled in. You need to follow the link to complete your subscription. We need to store the time and IP address of your confirmation in order to prove that you did subscribe to the newsletter. To serve personalised advertising to you — BCD Chemie doesn´t share your information with advertisers without your consent. BCD Chemie allows advertisers to choose the characteristics of users who will see their advertisements, and BCD Chemie may use any of the non-personally-identifiable attributes BCD Chemie has collected to select the appropriate audience for those advertisements. When you click on or otherwise interact with an advertisement, there is a possibility that the advertiser may place a cookie in your browser and that your attributes meet the criteria the advertiser selected.

Right to withdraw consent

If the use of your data is based on your explicit consent, like ordering a Newsletter, you may at any time withdraw your consent for future processing for that purpose. For all other subject rights please see below.

Recipients of personal data

BCD Chemie may share the information collected with third parties for further processing to provide a safe, efficient and customized experience. Here are the details on how BCD Chemie does that: To provide products: Each entity of the affiliated Group of BCD Chemie may share your Personal Data within the affiliated Group, but also with agents, contractors or partners of BCD Chemie in connection with services that these individuals or entities perform for or with BCD Chemie.
These agents, contractors or partners are restricted from using this data in any way other than to provide services for BCD Chemie, or for the collaboration in which they and BCD Chemie are engaged (for example, some of our products are developed and marketed through joint agreements with other companies). BCD Chemie may, for example, provide your information to agents, contractors or partners for hosting our databases, data processing or mailing you information that you requested.
Where processing is to be carried out by agents, contractors or partners on behalf of BCD Chemie, the contractors provide sufficient guarantees to implement appropriate technical and organizational measures in such a manner that processing will meet the requirements of the data protection law. Processing by an agent, contractor or partner shall be governed by a written contract.
To respond to legal requests and prevent harm: BCD Chemie reserves the right to share your data to respond to duly authorised data requests of governmental authorities, or where required by law BCD Chemie shall never sell your Personal Data to third parties, such as marketers, without your explicit consent. BCD Chemie does not provide any Personal Data to “people finder,” “public directory” or “white pages” sites.

Sending and storing information overseas

BCD Chemie may disclose Personal Data about an individual to overseas recipients after obtaining the consent of the individual; or otherwise complying with applicable privacy legislation. BCD Chemie may also store Personal Data in the ‘cloud’ which may mean that it resides on servers which are situated outside EU. In cases when BCD Chemie needs to transmit your Personal Data, BCD Chemie shall preferably transmit your personal data only within countries of the European Economic Area (EEA) and to or from countries that provide adequate protection, as confirmed by the European Commission. For more information, see European Commission, “Commission Decisions on the Adequacy of the Protection of Personal Data in Third Countries.”
In other cases, the transmission will be done preferably according to the requirements of applicable regulations with appropriate safeguards, and on condition that enforceable data subject rights and effective legal remedies for data subjects are available or, by using of binding corporate rules. Finally, if these options were not possible, the data transfers we have to make will be in accordance to the provisions of Article 49 GDPR, for example with the explicit consent of the data subject.

Deletion process

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal accounting or reporting requirements. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from an authorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means and the applicable legal requirements.

The treatment of special categories of personal data

BCD Chemie shall use and/or disclose special categories of personal data only for the purpose for which it was provided either based on your consent, or if the use or disclosure of the sensitive information is permitted by law.

Applicants

If you get in contact with BCD Chemie regarding open positions or in the case of a speculative application, we will process your data as follows: We process personal data you provide to us only for respective purposes, i.e. the respective position you apply for. You can see the categories of personal data we store directly in the relevant application form before you submit it to us.
Parallel to the human resources department, only the corresponding manager has access to your personal data. In the case of a negative decision by the manager, this access will be revoked and only the respective person in the human resources department has access your data. Obtaining and storing applicants’ personal data is necessary in order to carry out the application process, initiated by the applicant, and to make decisions about the potential working relationship. BCD Chemie deletes personal data when the application process has been completed. However, access to personal data will be restricted if there are any legal obligations to keep it.

Your data subject´s rights

BCD Chemie shall honour your data subject’s right in accordance with legal obligations and subject to the exemptions defined in applicable laws and regulations.

These rights are

1. Your right to access your personal data;
2. Your right to correct or amend or update your personal data;
3. Your right to be forgotten (right to erasure);
4. Your right to obtain Personal Data in a portable form (right to data portability);
5. Your right to restriction of processing, according to the regulation;
6. Your right to object of processing of personal data concerning you, according to the regulation, and;
7. Your right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please contact the Group Data Protection Officer. For contact details see below. You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data. However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

Your right “to be forgotten”

If you wish to remove your personal data from our systems as indicated in the “Deletion Process” section, please contact us.

Security

BCD Chemie implements reasonable physical, technical and administrative security controls to protect your personal data against loss, misuse, unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration or destruction. Your data will be stored in a secure operating environment. However, BCD Chemie cannot guarantee the security of information on or transmitted via the internet as it relies on the security of the system you have used in communication with BCD Chemie systems. BCD Chemie uses measures to enhance security, such as analysing account behaviour for fraudulent or otherwise anomalous behaviour and BCD Chemie attempts to encrypt that information to protect against eavesdropping.

Contact details of the data protection officer

BCD Chemie has appointed a Group Data Protection Officer who is located at the Headquarters in Germany together with an international Team of Local Data Protection Coordinators, thus you can get in contact in the language of the respective region. We remain available for your questions and remarks at any time.
If you have any questions regarding the processing of your personal data and possible related rights, you may contact the Group Data Protection Officer directly as per the below:

Group Data Protection Officer (GDPO)
Schellerdamm 16
21079 Hamburg
Germany
datenschutz@bcd-chemie.de

Right to contact the supervisory authority

Without prejudice to any other administrative or judicial remedy, every data subject shall have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the Member State of his or her habitual residence, place of work or place of the alleged infringement if the data subject considers that the processing of personal data relating to him or her infringes this Regulation.

External references and links

BCD Chemie’s websites may have links to other sites that are owned and maintained by other organisations. These links are outside BCD Chemie´s scope yet are being provided as a convenience and for informational purposes only; they do not constitute any matter related to or sponsored by BCD Chemie services or opinions or organisation or individual. Please contact the external site for answers to questions regarding its content and their privacy settings & policy.
Did you know ?
Cooling lubricant additives

Metal working fluids, especially the water-miscible metal working fluids, are complex, multi-component systems that have to meet a wide range of requirements.

The main components are the base oil, which has a lubricating effect, and water, which provides good cooling.

To make oil and water compatible, surfactants are used. In addition, various standard and special amines are used as pH buffers and for corrosion protection. To prevent foaming of the metal working fluid, antifoams are used. Wetting agents  improve the wetting of the metal by the metal working fluid and dispersing agents ensure that solid particles are kept in suspension, do not settle and do not lead to clogging.

Contract blending of chemicals

Many manufacturers of solid or liquid products do not have the production capacity or do not see it as their core business to dissolve solids in liquids, mix liquids or produce formulations. In individual cases, it may also be a matter of a new product of which it is not yet possible to judge whether it will be accepted by the market or for which a capacity expansion has not yet been implemented.
In all these cases, manufacturing is outsourced to contract blending service providers who specialise in producing appropriate blends quickly and to a high quality.
The BlendServ® department is the service provider for the production of blends within BCD Chemie.

Plasticisers

Many plastics (synthetic polymers) are hard and brittle at room temperature. So-called plasticisers are used to make them more flexible and suitable for a wide range of applications. These are usually esters that dissolve in the plastic and improve the mobility of the individual polymer molecules in relation to one another – a molecular lubricant, so to speak.

Surfactants

Surfactants are intermediaries between different worlds. They are needed to make water-insoluble liquids compatible with water (emulsions) or to detach dirt particles from textiles and prevent them from settling again.

Surfactants consist of a water-loving (hydrophilic) part and a water-repellent, oil-loving (hydrophobic or lipophilic) part. The hydrophilic part of the surfactant molecule is in the water, while the hydrophobic part is in the water-insoluble liquid or on the dirt particle.

Surfactants can also stabilise foams. If this is undesirable, the foam can be destroyed by the use of antifoams, with PU foams (e.g. for mattresses, shoe soles and foam boards) the effect is desired, so here special silicone surfactants are often used.

Starch

Starch, like cellulose  or xanthan gum, is a natural molecule composed of various sugars. It is obtained from potatoes, corn and peas, among others.

Native, untreated starch is not soluble in water at room temperature. Chemical modification yields a starch that is soluble in water (so-called cold-water soluble starch). The modified starch is used, among other things, in building material systems, where it controls water retention, or in starch adhesives.

Performance chemicals

Performance chemicals, in contrast to industrial chemicals, are products that have a more complex structure and where the focus is on an effect rather than the chemical structure.
In the case of rheological additives, for example, the control of the flow behaviour of a liquid is important; the chemical structure of the rheological additive is of secondary importance. For this reason, there are many different rheological additives that differ in chemical structure, such as cellulose ethers, xanthan gum, layered silicates, and fumed silica. Typical industrial chemicals include acids, lyes, salts and solvents such as alcohols.

Silicones

Silicones is the name for a group of polymers whose basic structure consists of silicon and oxygen. The basic structure can be a linear chain, branched or forming a three-dimensional network. The raw material base for silicones is silica sand.
The silicon atoms still carry hydrocarbon residues, which gives silicones a position between organic and inorganic chemicals.
Silicones are also often referred to as siloxanes. If the hydrocarbon residues are methyl groups, the molecule is called polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The corresponding substance group is called silicone oil.

Silanes

Silanes are bifunctional molecules that combine two properties.
The raw material base for silanes is silica sand. Silanes carry anchor groups with which they react with the surface of mineral substrates, glass or metals so that they sit firmly on this surface.
The second, the functional group, determines the properties that the silane brings to the surface. If the silane carries an alkyl rest as a functional group, the surface acquires water-repellent (hydrophobic) properties. If the functional group is, for example, an amine, an epoxide or carries a double bond, a subsequently applied coating can react with this functional group. This improves the adhesion of the coating to the substrate, and is also referred to as adhesion promoter.

Silicone oils

Unlike mineral oils, silicone oils are based on silicon chemistry; the raw material base is silica sand. Silicone oils are more chemically resistant and also more resistant at high temperatures. They are used, for example, as lubricants, release agents, heat transfer oils and also as transformer oils.

Silicone emulsions

Silicone emulsions are emulsions of silicone oil or of modified silicone oil. They are used wherever an aqueous dosage form is required, since silicone oils are only soluble in organic solvents.

Contract filling of chemicals

Many manufacturers of solids or liquids do not have the ability to fill products into small or large containers – from 1-liter bottles, to 200-liter drums, IBCs, and even tank trucks. In such cases, in order not to have to invest in filling plants that are not utilized, the help of contract fillers of chemicals is sought.

These service providers have various filling lines on which the products can be filled and labeled accordingly.

The BlendServ® department is the service provider for contract filling of chemicals within BCD Chemie.

Plastics additives

Many plastics (synthetic polymers) are hard and brittle at room temperature. So-called plasticisers are used to make them more flexible and suitable for a wide range of applications. These are usually esters that dissolve in the plastic and improve the mobility of the individual polymer molecules in relation to one another – a molecular lubricant, so to speak.

Lacquer binders

The lacquer binder is the most important component of a coating or ink:
It forms a film on the surface after the coating or ink has been applied and dried and protects it or also serves decorative purposes, e.g. as a clear coating on wood, highlighting the wood structure, or by adding a colour when pigments are in the coating. The lacquer binder fixes the pigments to the surface, which could be brushed off the surface without the lacquer binder.

Additives for coatings

In principle, inks and coatings consist of four groups of substances:
The lacquer binder forms the coating film and protects the surface from environmental influences.
The second group of substances are the pigments, which give a coating its colour or are added for technical purposes such as corrosion protection. In the dried coating, the pigments are surrounded by the lacquer binder, which fixes them to the surface.

Additives for coatings  improve the properties of the binder and are necessary to produce a high-performance coating.
The fourth group are the solvents, these can be organic solvents or water. They are necessary so that the coating can be well applied to the surface. The solvents then evaporate and the coating film with pigment and additives remains on the surface.

Additive for coatings include rheological additives to control flow behaviour and dispersing additives to keep pigments and fillers well suspended and prevent agglomeration of these solids. They also include antifoams, which on the one hand prevent the formation of foam and on the other hand destroy created foam that leaves an unsightly surface after the coating film has dried, wetting agents, which ensure good wetting of the surface, and adhesion promoters, which ensure good adhesion of the coating film to the surface.

Flame retardants

To prevent plastics from immediately bursting into flames in the event of a fire, flame retardants are added to them. This contributes to safety: On the one hand, people in the room have more time to leave it, and on the other hand, emergency personnel have more time to rescue injured persons.

Antifoams

Depending on your requirements, foam may be desirable or undesirable. Desirable foam is, for example, in the beer glass, on the cappuccino, or else in foams consisting of cured PU foam, as in the case of mattresses.
However, foam is often undesirable in chemical or process engineering processes, as foam formation can cause a vessel to overflow or the overfill protection system to trip, interrupting production.

The formation of foam is also undesirable in inks and coatings, as it leads to an unsightly surface.
The liquid lamella, which encloses the air in the case of foam, is stabilized by surface-active substances such as surfactants. Antifoams are incompatible with the liquid to be defoamed and form small liquid droplets that migrate into the foam lamella and destroy it – the lamella bursts and the foam disappears.

Dispersing agents

To prevent pigments and other solids present in a solution from settling or clumping together, dispersing agents are used.
The dispersing agents accumulate on the surface of the solid and lead to a stable dispersion by electrostatic repulsion (surfaces carry like charges) or by steric stabilisation (space-filling molecular chains prevent the solids from approaching each other).

Cellulose ethers

The raw material for cellulose ether is cellulose, which is obtained either from cotton linters or from wood. Cotton linters are particularly pure and consist of almost 100% cellulose. Coniferous wood is mostly used as wood pulp, as its wood fibers are longer than those of hardwood. Wood contains just under 50% cellulose, which must be separated from the accompanying substances (lignin). Pure cellulose is chemically modified to obtain cellulose ethers.

Cellulose ethers are, for example, methyl cellulose and carboxymethyl cellulose. They are used, among other things, as rheological additives in building inks as well as in building in cementitious plasters and tile adhesives as well as in gypsum systems. Only the use of cellulose ethers has made modern and easy-to-use high-quality plasters and tile adhesives possible.

Binders for water-based coatings

Where possible, solvents in inks and coatings are replaced by water.
To function in water, different binders must be used than in solvent-based coatings. These binders are often already dispersed in water before they are formulated into a coating.

Amines

Amines find wide application in the chemical industry as building blocks for the synthesis of various products, but are also used in diverse processes, such
as catalysts in the production of PU foams.
They are also used for pH adjustment, corrosion protection in metal working fluids or gas scrubbing in refineries and power plants.

Amines are organic compounds that contain nitrogen (amino group). The numerous different amines often have an ammonia to fishy odour.

Rheological additives

Rheological additives are used to control the flow behaviour of liquids or pastes.
They are more than simple thickeners that make a liquid more viscous: They can be used to selectively set different flow characteristics.
In paints, for example, the pigments must not settle during storage, which necessitates a high viscosity of the paint.
Storage stability is further enhanced by special dispersing additives, which contribute to better stabilization of the pigments. If the paint is applied, the viscosity should be lower so that it is easier to apply, subsequently flows and inconsistencies due to the brush stroke or roller pattern are avoided. In the end, the paint should be viscous again so that it does not run off on vertical surfaces.
Another example is greases: In these, oils are made so viscous by adding a rheological additive that they do not flow out of open systems (e.g. ball or roller bearings), as it would be the case with oils, for example.

White pigments

The most important white pigment is titanium dioxide. Compared to other white pigments such as zinc oxide, barium sulfate or lithopone, it has a much higher refractive index and therefore appears whiter. Titanium dioxide is practically everywhere where products need to be white: in wall paints, in plastics, in high-quality papers, but also in toothpaste. Titanium dioxide is used in two different forms, as rutile and as anatase. Rutile is the slightly harder form, anatase the softer. The latter is used where abrasion plays a role.