Automated Laboratory

Using the power of data to combine performance, efficiency, and circularity

Coatings and adhesives manufacturers are under pressure to combine high performance with high efficiency, while continuing to make their operations more circular. Data-driven innovation supported by robotic lab automation and artificial intelligence (AI) can help address these needs. 

At Covestro, one way we are driving these technologies is with our Automated Laboratory. The lab’s automation system of 40 interconnected robotic units and purpose-built digital tools enables our experts to accelerate innovation by increasing the number, variety, precision, and speed of our formulation tests.

These tests will generate sets of structured data that our innovators can analyze and compare with historical data. AI and machine learning can help us further accelerate and refine this process and even make suggestions for new formulation development. Together with strong customer partnerships and collaborative opportunities — which may extend to co-creation initiatives — these capabilities will empower us to:

• Optimize our existing solutions by further adapting our adhesive and coating formulations to customer needs
• Accelerate innovation by enabling faster application development that can be customized to a broad range of market segments

24/7 testing drives rapid formulation optimization and innovation

Operating around the clock, our high-throughput laboratory enables us to run a multitude of formulation tests each week and screen an even higher number of coated films with consistent precision. In turn, this generates valuable data, which our lab can process efficiently with built-in machine learning and data analysis capabilities.

Optimizing our existing solutions
• The lab supports our coatings and adhesives technologies in water- and solvent-borne 1K and 2K systems.
• We can test with precision – with both standardized testing conditions, and customizable temperature and moisture environment in application modules.

Accelerating innovation
• Fully digitalized workflows and automatic material screenings help us keep pace with market developments and regulations.
• By combining our existing expertise with cutting-edge automation, we can rapidly discover and iterate new formulations at scale.

Serving a range of needs with solutions targeted to real-world use cases

By running a broader range of material screenings and exploring more formulations, we can more quickly identify challenges in meeting customer needs. We can also develop new, tailored formulations that simplify customer adoption, rather than being limited to general guide formulations. In this way, we’ll strengthen our customer centricity, empowering customers in a wider range of market segments and application areas to lead the way to new product introductions.

Optimizing our existing solutions
• Our automated laboratory and its rapid testing capabilities enable broader parameter screenings with various combinations of ingredients and process conditions. This helps experts adjust for desired performance and identify unexpected material behaviors.
• The Automated Laboratory offers performance-driven versatility. It allows us to test the robustness of products on-site (using climate chambers that simulate application conditions in various regions of the world) and to adjust workflows to market-specific test protocols.

Accelerating innovation
• Rapid testing and modern algorithms enable customized formulation development driven by precision data. With these capabilities, collaborating partners will be able to work with us on projects to enhance their products’ performance.

Swift regulatory adaption and improved sustainability 

While our strategy at Covestro is to become fully circular, rapid approval and adoption of more circular coatings and adhesives can be difficult. The Automated Laboratory’s robotic material screening capabilities provide an ‘innovation boost’. Specifically, they help us to adapt existing solutions swiftly to regulatory changes, and to test new products like partly bio-based crosslinkers and binders more efficiently.

Testing in multiple formulations means we can often provide guidance on reducing adoption requirements for more sustainable products. In turn, our customers can more quickly position themselves at the forefront of more circular and sustainable innovation.

Optimizing our existing solutions
• Rapid material screenings strengthen our ability to develop solutions that keep pace with evolving regulatory standards.

Accelerating innovation
• The Automated Laboratory drives more circular innovation. It helps us to strengthen and expand our CQ portfolio of products comprising alternative or circular raw materials — driving climate neutrality, carbon footprint reductions, and reduced environmental impacts.
• Advanced material testing lowers innovation hurdles by helping customers replace conventional products.

Joint problem-solving with added co-innovation potential

Building on our existing customer focus, the Automated Laboratory paves the way for new conversations and helps us work with customers to envision the future of coatings and adhesives.  With data-driven product innovation capabilities, there’s even potential for faster, market-focused joint formulation development that advances industry standards.

Optimizing existing solutions
• The Automated Laboratory facilitates joint problem-solving via studies on formulation optimization (whether for performance, circularity, or cost).
• The lab supports a broad range of customer markets, including mobility, infrastructure, wood & furniture, packaging & print, construction & architectural, and sports & leisure. 

Accelerating innovation
• The lab opens opportunities to build the future together through joint projects along the value chain, including through the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence.
• Robotic laboratory automation and application testing combines with our decades of experience to transform legacy into opportunity.