Liu Zhigang: Multidimensional Balance in Wood Coatings

Editor's Note: Keeping pace with industry developments and empowering practitioners to strategically plan ahead, HZ info launches the special feature "Foresee 2026: Dialogues with Chief Engineers, Insights into the Future." 

Beyond macro-level data to directly engage with frontline technology R&D and application, we have interviewed chief engineers or senior experts across specialized segments. Together, they help practitioners outline the technological landscape and market opportunities for the coatings industry in 2026.

Featured Focus: Wood Coatings

Interviewee: Liu Zhigang

Liu Zhigang, as General Manager of the Technical Management Center at Zhanchen New Material Co., Ltd., With over two decades of expertise in wood coatings, he has developed comprehensive environmentally friendly coatings solutions forfurniture manufacturers, demonstrating a keen understanding of the industry’s shift toward sustainability and customization.

Balance: Key Technical Challenges

Liu Zhigang notes that the wood coatings is steadily progressing toward green and customized solutions, with balancing low-VOCs environmental performance. The revised Environmental Protection Tax Law in 2025 expands the scope of VOCs taxation, a policy shift that profoundly affects wood coatings industries. This change further enhances the cost-performance advantage of eco-friendly, directly encouraging manufacturers to ramp up R&D investments in low-VOCs like water-based, solvent-free UV, and high-solid coatings.

However, pain points persist in the industry. Traditional water-based coatings face issues such as complex application, poor wood sealing, insufficient hardness, and high costs. UV coatings have limitations in deep curing and substrate compatibility, making it difficult to meet the full-scenario demands of high-end and customized furniture. There is an urgent need for traditional wood coatings to evolve toward low-VOCs, high-performance, and high-efficiency solutions.

Integration: The Main Evolution Direction

From Liu’s perspective, the development of mainstreammust achieve integration across three dimensions: environmental, precise performance adaptation for different productionand diversified functional integration to meet varied needs.

Low-VOCs will become a basic entry threshold for products, driven by both rising consumer focus on health andcertification. Performance metrics must be upgraded precisely according to scenarios. For instance, high-end solid wood furniture demandsenhance hardness, fullness, and anti-grain-raising while preserving the wood’s natural texture, promoting optimization in transparent finishing systems. Automated production lines for customized furniture require coatings with faster curing speeds, better decorative effects, and improved substrate adaptability.

End-user needs have shifted from basic protection to multi-functional integration, making functional diversification a core element of product differentiation. Scratch resistance/self-healing, digital customization for personalized colors, and properties like anti-corrosion, anti-mold, insect resistance, and UV aging resistance for outdoor wood coatings will become key R&D directions.

Recommendations for Practitioners

Considering the tightening environmental regulations, rising demand for customized furniture, and the push toward “dual-carbon” goals in 2026, Liu Zhigang offers clear R&D and development guidance for industry practitioners: R&D personnel should focus on environmental attributes, performance adaptability, and functional diversity, with particular attention to high-performance water-based wood coatings and high-solid coatings.

Water-based UV wood coatings combine the environmental benefits of UV instant curing. This positions them as one of the core development directions in wood coatings.

For the R&D of water-based UV wood coatings, Liu highlights key focus areas: first, developing versatile formulations that address adhesion inconsistencies on different substrates such as solid wood and MDF, catering to the multi-substrate nature of customized furniture; second, advancing multi-cure technologies to meet demands for opacity and filling on porous substrates and dark woods; third, optimizing leveling and application stability to reduce defects like sagging and pinholes during spraying, while improving drying processes with low-temperature baking technology to shorten drying cycles and align with automated production line rhythms.