AVL Metal Powders

Company Overview

AVL Metal Powders were founded in 1937 as a manufacturer of aluminium, bronze and copper powders. To this day, they remain a family-owned business, now 4th generation, but their products are sold around the world from their headquarters and production facility in Kortrijk in Belgium. From here they serve numerous industries including the cellular concrete, inks, paints and plastics industries.

Kortrijk not only houses their production site; AVL also has research and development laboratories with creative experts who are striving to innovate high-quality and effective pigments. Here they are able to develop and tailor their grades to suit various market sectors and applications. Then using their unique dry milling process, they create exceptionally pure products free from mineral oils.

Their range of metallic pigments and powders still includes the original colours they started with in 1937 but has expanded to also include a huge range of gold bronze pigments, silver aluminium pigments and zinc powders. These metallic pigments are able to enhance any product with a true metallic colour and light-scattering properties.

What Can Replace Talc in Coatings? A Function-First Guide for Formulators

Talc replacement in coatings means finding a mineral, or a blend of minerals, that reproduces the specific functions talc performs in a formulation, such as barrier protection, rheology control, extension, matting, sanding or film reinforcement. Candidates include mica, micaceous iron oxide, hydrous and calcined kaolin, calcium carbonate, synthetic calcium silicate hydrates (tobermorite and xonotlite), wollastonite, nepheline syenite and feldspar. Each reproduces some of talc's functions well and others poorly.