we would like to start with our category living the future where we show you techniques that make building and living simply better and more beautiful - today with a facade paint. the facade paint should protect the facade from moisture, mould and algae. a novelty. but until the product was finished, the developers are almost desperate. and once again it has been shown how perfect nature is. moin moin, i'm the fog beetle.
every morning, shortly before getting up, i walk up the dune and pull in the first drops of water from the fog. therefore also fog drinking beetles. apart from a few scientists and freaks, no one knew me. but because the sto people wanted a new colour here, i was dragged into the public eye. 2010 at the company sto. world market leader for composite thermal insulation systems. but also specialized in facade paints. a new development is to come. a new paint that
also protects house walls against moisture and fungal attack. the facade experts are often inspired by nature, but by plants. but one day the national geographic flutters into the house. then chance helped us. an american colleague sat at the dentist and saw another product in the national geographic, the lotusan. because he was so pleased that our product would also be called a bionic product in the usa, he sent the magazine here.
the article was about surface effects in nature. reiner schmid, a self-taught master painter and varnisher, informs his colleagues. and shows them the article. with the lucky punch - the beetle. i was just mentioned by the way. that's understandable who wants to. not even a foto. pfff. the beetle lives in the namib desert at the african west coast. the experts get a specimen from a german collector. the lacquer laboratory technician heinrich schmidt now shows us how the beetle was examined at that time.
the beetle was placed under the microscope in the laboratory. the pictures show the structure of the beetle tank. it is crossed by hills and valleys. the moisture settles on the hills and then runs down the valleys. this is reminiscent of the lotus effect, in which the water simply rolls off the surface. but there is a big difference. in order for the water to be able to roll off, the water droplet must have a minimum weight, which the effect is effective at all. with the dryonic effect, for example,
if there is dew on the facade early on, the weight of each individual water drop would be too low. however, the water collects in the valleys and then runs off at some point when it has reached mass. and exactly this principle, that even the smallest drops of water are absorbed and then run off, now had to be brought into the paint. the challenge was to get the surface
where we have valleys where there is enough water to drain and the mountains are not too high. also you have to consider the color shade feasibility so that you can make it other shades. also you have to consider the color shade feasibility so that you can make it other shades. and how stable is the color under light influence or under uv irradiation. it was an arduous process, a few hundred, if not 1000 hours to get only the surface effect.
when that was finally done, the whole thing is of course going to go into series production. to produce it in big production, it has to be stable in bearings. there are attempts there we have suffered clear failures, as said 9 to 12 months even 16 months is our goal. after two days the first mixture turned over, that we only had one pudding left in the bucket. of course it was no longer workable. well, i had gotten them into quite a mess. but what was that complicated? the technicians in the research department had a tough nut to crack.
they developed new prototypes. and they had to be tested over and over again. so we drive our trucks all over germany or europe every day and then they put paint on pallets in the normal packaging in buckets. will then walk dangers to see if they tolerate the temperature differences. if we look at ourselves this summer 30 to 32 degrees in the shade, in the sun even more. then we have winter months
clearly undergrade over longer time. the product also has to withstand this in the short term. finally, after two years of untiring trying, the recipe is right. there are different help substances that can be used in different combinations and to keep the whole in the bucket in the balance. and a lot of experience is required. in the end it was a so-called additive, i.e. an auxiliary substance.
it made sure that the colour remained in suspension, that the heavy part did not cancel downwards or that the light parts did not separate upwards. this is in each of our colors. this is in each of our colors. sto gets the patent and in 2015 the new facade paint will be on the market. it will also be applied to the company's own faã§ade at its headquarters in stã¼hlingen. as you can see, we immediately painted our newest building with our stocolor dryonic. here you can see very nicely that it has a high color brilliance.
and today in the weather, when we now drive over the surface with our hand. let's feel a little moisture. as soon as the fog or dew increases, it starts to run immediately. works very well. this here is a very demanding building because it has no roof overhang or the like, so it is completely exposed to the weather. that was a very important point for us. as soon as we had the great result of the stocolor dryonic, we naturally wanted to use it to protect our buildings.
the effect is clearly visible on the demo wall. in the middle the water runs off faster. this is due to the microstructure in the color. it lies like a curtain over the wall where the water runs down. just like the fog drinking beetle from the african desert. am i ingenious or am i ingenious? it took five years for the novelty to come onto the market. in the meantime, sto has further developed the paint and given it a uv filter to prevent the walls from fading. the patented paint can be painted on various surfaces.
and - this was also important: it is not only available in white, but also in a wide range of colours.