What does the future hold for the marine coatings industry? Based on the past and present, it probably would be fair to say that continuing developments can be expected to affect the industry, mainly in terms of environmental issues, working conditions, new technologies, and productivity. For starters, it might be expected that all coating work will have to be made environmentally safe. Following the lead of industrialised countries, the types of environmental regulations already developed and continuing to be developed there probably will be applied worldwide at some point. The three main issues are ·continued reduction of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from coatings; ·a ban on dust from open blasting; and ·improvement of waste disposal by minimisation of the costs involved. In addition, productivity will probably be increased by use of new technologies rather than a larger workforce-at least in industrialised countries-resulting in better working conditions and fewer workers. A third broad expectation is that coating manufacturers will continue to build on the progress they have made with products such as high-solids, surface-tolerant, and other more efficient and environmentally acceptable materials and develop the technology of coatings even more than they already have in recent years.
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