The HeiQ Viroblock technology platform expands its impact to consumers’ lives as it is adopted for the first time in wall paint. The collaboration between HeiQ and Berger Paints has led to a world premiere designed to enhance hygiene and reduce the risk of contamination in households.

Berger Paints of India has partnered with Swiss textile innovator HeiQ to produce a unique luxury interior emulsion, Silk Breathe Easy powered by one of the world’s most effective antiviral ingredients, HeiQ Viroblock. Having proved its efficacy on over 1 billion textile products around the world, HeiQ Viroblock underlines its multifaceted characteristics with this premiere of providing antiviral properties to paint.

Ingenious and innovative antiviral paint

Silk Breathe Easy, a luxury interior paint designed to give walls a rich appearance, significantly reduces air pollution indoors, kills bacteria and protects surfaces from viruses. Formulated with 100% acrylic emulsions and vibrant pigments, it has low volatile organic compound (VOC) and comes packed with formaldehyde reduction abilities. Mr. Abhijit Roy, MD & CEO of Berger Paints is enthusiastic about this collaboration saying: “As a leading provider of paints in India and a company with a track record of being innovative and socially responsible, we were delighted to not only collaborate with a like-minded company like HeiQ but also that we could integrate HeiQ Viroblock into our emulsion and stay true to our motto of using state of the art technology to make a difference and help make your home both safe and beautiful.”

Award winning ultimately safe, sustainable and effective antiviral protection.

Swiss textile technology HeiQ Viroblock NPJ03 is among the first textile technologies in the world to be proven effective against SARS-CoV-2* (the virus causing COVID-19) and has been applied by more than 150 brands worldwide to over 1 billion textile products such as face masks. HeiQ Viroblock combines two mechanisms of attack resulting in an over 99.99% destruction of various kinds of viruses and bacteria, according to tests performed according to ISO 18184 and ISO 20743 standards. HeiQ Viroblock NPJ03 is made with 100% cosmetic-grade materials.

HeiQ CEO and Co-Founder Carlo Centonze says “I am particularly excited about this collaboration as after having ‘viroblocked’ over a billion textile products, we now can even viroblock your homes and offices and make every surface is safer to touch. Our innovative technologies are not restricted to applications on textiles, but they can be implemented flexibly. As HeiQ Viroblock continues to provide protection to textiles, materials and surfaces around the world, it gives me satisfaction to know we are playing our part in enhancing the quality of people’s lives, not just during the pandemic, but well into the future.”

The creation of this revolutionary new paint that protects surface from virus highlights the qualities of innovation, agility and sustainability that exemplify both HeiQ and Berger Paints and underline the pioneering spirit that characterizes this partnership.

Paints being a relatively low involvement consumer category is typically assumed to be only “aesthetic” in nature, however those from the industrial side would be aware that paints in today’s context have a great deal of research behind them and possess very strong functional benefits covering the spectrum of hygiene coatings (like in the case of clean rooms or operation theatres), protective coatings (which can be stain and spill resistant, impact resistant, corrosion resistant, etc), safety (fire proofing/retarding) to even being conductive (capable of being used to draw circuits and conduct electricity) or  thermal (to insulate surfaces) and lately research is ongoing to see if paints can be used to harvest solar power as a roof coating.

The paint & coating field has come a long way over the past few decades and is today at the forefront of technology given that it is all pervasive in our lives… we use them on our vehicles, gadgets, tools and our homes & offices. Corrosion itself causes huge losses every year in the world and much of it can be prevented by time application of proper coatings.

Institutes and corporates all over the world are continuously undertaking research to expand the horizon of paint applications beyond the boundaries of aesthetics alone and Berger is happy to be a part of the same. It is in this context that Silk Breathe Easy interior paint was developed, and we are happy to share the following:

• Protects wall surface from Viruses with an efficacy of over 99% (within 30 minutes of the virus coming in contact with the surface painted with Silk Breathe Easy)
• Tested & Certified Anti-Bacterial – protects surface from 29 different strains of bacteria with a 99% efficacy
• Tested & Certified Anti-Pollution – the paint mitigates 3 pollutants – Formaldehyde, Sulphur Oxides & Nitrogen Oxides.

Berger therefore highlights these properties to stress that Silk Breathe Easy not only provides superior aesthetics but also helps to minimize propagation of infection through surface contact & reduces the level of pollution in the rooms. Tremendous efforts have gone into developing the paint – which involve both superior raw materials and ingenious processes while manufacturing.

 

* M.J. (2020) Report on “Viral Stability and Persistence of SARS-CoV-2 on Treated Material”. Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Australia

 

Image: Silk Breathe Easy (Image from Berger)