Manufacturing paint is a very complex process with a lot of variables and trade-offs. It is often difficult to optimize the combination of parameters to produce a good quality paint at the lowest overall cost. For example, how should you compare the true cost of a cheaper ingredient that may require longer processing time to an easily processed but more expensive ingredient? When making any purchase decision, an approach known as "Cost to Own" has been widely used in the purchase of automobiles and computer systems. Cost to Own is a financial estimate to help assess direct and indirect costs related to a purchase. This methodology has been applied to the purchase of titanium dioxide for coatings. A model has been developed to assess the Cost to Own of titanium dioxide in coatings that incorporates several factors including: (1) Delivered Cost - Cost to Buy (2) Formulation Cost - cost of all raw materials required to achieve desired coating performance characteristics when using a particular TiO_2 product (3) Processing/Productivity cost - energy, manpower, and asset utilization costs involved in preparing the titanium dioxide for use (4) Inventory Cost - cost of carrying inventories of multiple TiO_2 products versus a single TiO_2 product for multiple coating applications This paper describes how the technical performance characteristics of titanium dioxide such as hiding power, tinting strength, ease of dispersion and photocatalytic durability interact and impact the coating producer's TiO_2 "cost to own".
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