[06.07.2012] The post World Wide era of outdoor water-based coatings starts on June 1st., 2012. A 2 year experiment on 27 samples to be examined in extraordinary test areas: the Acqua Alta oceanographic platform off the coast of Venice and the Ismar Institute in the port of Genoa.
From Homer to Renner Italia researches – If Homer literary production had stopped after the Iliad, Ulysses would have remained a half hero. He would have been able to mislead the city of Troy, but not the archetype of a man striving to overcome the limits of knowledge. The Odyssey, Homer’s second epic tale, turns Ulysses as a man into an eternal symbol able to stand 2.700 years of history wear and tear. To honour the king of Ithaca’s epic voyage, Odyssey is the name chosen by Renner Italia outdoor water-based coat lab for its last incredible test on natural degradation.
The post World Wide era – With Odyssey, Renner Italia overcomes the stunning boundaries reached by World Wide project during the years 2009-2012. Our researchers had already been committed to check out coat resistance in Singapore, in Miami and Townsville (Australia) humid latitudes, in Krasnoyarsk’s Siberian frost and in the desert of Phoenix. World Wide goal was to provide incontrovertible proof about the 15 year guarantee on windows and 8 year guarantee on wooden shutters.
Odyssey challenge to the unknown is to verify how much Renner Italia water-based coatings can resist the attacks of the sea, the most adverse environment of all. The latter was also the main element in Ulysses’s epic deeds. The sea, an everlasting and untamable hindrance to be overcomed to reach the destination so longed-for: Ithaca, for the Homeric hero, and the maximum durability on wood for our water-based formulas.
Odyssey degradation test – The exclusive Renner Italia Odyssey test will last two years. From June 1st, 2012 to May 31st, 2014, 27 lathes of oak, larch, pine and okoumé woods, protected by so many coloured and pigmented coating systems have been placed on open sea or bound to the port pollution.
The two exposure fields have been drawn in the middle of the Adriatic sea, more exactly on the Cnr (National Council of Researches) oceanographic platform “Acqua Alta” off the coasts of Venice, and inside the port of Genoa, at the Cnr Institute of Marine Science. The Ligurian location adds a strong, fine particle stress to the maximum threefold degrading action of salt water, humidity and UV radiation on the oceanographic platform.
Cnr cooperation – The Odyssey program will rely on Cnr cooperation. Besides hosting the original experiment, Cnr will assist Renner Italia R&D lab in smog rate, humidity, rain and irradiation surveys. Every 6 months our chemical researchers will record changes in lathe colour, sheen level, adhesion loss, crack formation and blistering effect (i.e.: blister formation).
The strength of the program – If a wooden frame on a building facing the sea is subject to the highest seaside decay, with Odyssey Renner Italia creates impossible conditions to be reproduced on earth, extending sea water, sunray, humidity and pollution exposure to 360°. On the Cnr platform, the coated samples will constantly be attacked by water, and stressed by aerosol salt from waves. UV impact radiation will be much more incisive through water reflex, too, as if the wooden frame was placed on a rock in the middle of the Mediterranean.
On the other hand, the pollution effect will be reached in the port of Genoa, a particular kind of human settlement characterized by a strong, atmospheric pollution. Smog will settle on the sample under nitrous acid form, and it will try to acidify coat films, thus arising a persistent corrosive adrift that Renner Italia products will be called to challenge.
The goals – Unlike previous degradation tests, Odyssey is not intended to extend new guarantees on outdoor water-based coating systems. It has a merely popular, goal. Once Odyssey is over, Renner Italia enriched heritage on knowledge and technology will be available to all the clients committed to wooden frame distribution at seaside resorts. Some PVC and fine aluminium lathes have also been placed next to Renner Italia wooden water-based coated samples at Cnr locations. The inside challenge issued by our R&D Lab is to verify the common belief according to which the PVC or aluminium frame is much more resistant than the wood one
The Odyssey tour has just started and it is already a colossal.
When you leave for Ithaca, hope that your tour is long, rich in adventures and knowledge. [Konstandinos Kavafis (1863 – 1933), Ithaca]
