National Technical Committee on Paints & Pigments of Standardization Administration of China is planning to revise and integrate the current seven national mandatory standards on limits of harmful substances of coatings into three by 2025. The revised standards will cover more products and introduce more advanced technical indicators, which can better guarantee the high-quality green development of the coating industry.
China initiated the Three-year Action Plan on Defending Blue Sky in 2018, which highly prioritized the formulation of the standards to control the emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In 2019 and 2020, six mandatory national standards (see above) for VOCs control in coatings published. Together with GB 24613-2009 which was published in 2009, they serve as a strong support for VOCs management.
Under the established standards, special functional coatings are exempt from content limitation of VOCs. However, there is no specific list or identification criteria for special functional coatings, which currently only are ambiguous descriptions, such as simulated plating-silver effect coatings, insulation coatings and touch screens, etc. To make it clear, a serials of group standards will be set. In 2021, China has drafted T/CSTM 00637-2022 Simulated Plating-silver Effect Coatings, which detailed the requirements the simulated plating-silver effect coatings should conform to, including electronic appliances, and surface decoration of automobile interior parts, etc. Two or more group standards are expected to be issued in 2022. These group standards may be cited or even the contents may be included in the three national mandatory standards to be issued by 2025.
