The new World Wide era of outdoor water-based coatings started on June 1st, 2012.

A 2 year experiment on 27 samples are examined in extraordinary test areas:

  • Acqua Alta oceanographic platform off the coast of Venice and
  • Ismar Institute in the port of Genoa.

To honour the king of Ithaca’s epic voyage, Odyssey is the name chosen by Renner Italia outdoor water-based coat lab for its last incredible test on natural degradation.

With Odyssey, Renner Italia overcomes the stunning boundaries reached by World Wide project during the years 2009-2012.

Our researchers had already been committed to check out coat resistance in Singapore, in Miami and Townsville (Australia) humid latitudes, in Krasnoyarsk’s Siberian frost and in the desert of Phoenix. World Wide goal was to provide incontrovertible proof about the 15 year guarantee on windows and 8 year guarantee on wooden shutters.

Odyssey challenge to the unknown is to verify how much Renner Italia water-based coatings can resist the attacks of the sea, the most adverse environment of all. The latter was also the main element in Ulysses’s epic deeds. The sea, an everlasting and untamable hindrance to be overcomed to reach the destination so longed-for: Ithaca, for the Homeric hero, and the maximum durability on wood for our water-based formulas.

The exclusive Renner Italia Odyssey test will last two years.

From June 1st, 2012 to May 31st, 2014, 27 lathes of oak, larch, pine and okoumé woods, protected by so many coloured and pigmented coating systems have been placed on open sea or bound to the port pollution. The two exposure fields have been drawn in the middle of the Adriatic sea, more exactly on the Cnr (National Council of Researches) oceanographic platform “Acqua Alta” off the coasts of Venice, and inside the port of Genoa, at the Cnr Institute of Marine Science. The Ligurian location adds a strong, fine particle stress to the maximum threefold degrading action of salt water, humidity and UV radiation on the oceanographic platform.

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The Odyssey program will rely on Cnr cooperation. Besides hosting the original experiment, Cnr will assist Renner Italia R&D lab in smog rate, humidity, rain and irradiation surveys. Every 6 months our chemical researchers will record changes in lathe colour, sheen level, adhesion loss, crack formation and blistering effect.

The goals – Unlike previous degradation tests, Odyssey is not intended to extend new guarantees on outdoor water-based coating systems. It has a merely popular, goal. Once Odyssey is over, Renner Italia enriched heritage on knowledge and technology will be available to all the clients committed to wooden frame distribution at seaside resorts. Some PVC and fine aluminium lathes have also been placed next to Renner Italia wooden water-based coated samples at Cnr locations. The inside challenge issued by our R&D Lab is to verify the common belief according to which the PVC or aluminium frame is much more resistant than the wood one

The Odyssey tour is colossal!