Automated Dynamic Testing for Drying, Hardness, and Adhesion of Paints, Coatings, and Adhesives

By Ronald T. Obie, Cameron R. Anderson

Characterization of dry and cure is very import-
ant in the development of paints, coatings,
and adhesives. It can be challenging to assess
dry and cure of these products on a quantitative,
non-biased basis.
Although there are many different techniques
utilized to assess drying, curing, and performance,
some are often qualitative at best. It would be
useful to have quantitative techniques available to
access these properties. In this paper, we intro-
duce a novel automated dynamic dry time recorder
(ADDTR) device that measures dry and cure of
coatings similar to mechanical dry time recorders
that meet ASTM Method D 5895.
The novel device is capable of recording and graph-
ically displaying the coating drying profile as it dries
so that drying time events may be easily identified,
archived, and analyzed, even for clear coatings. Such
analysis allows easy and quantitative comparison
between different coating systems, chemistries, driers,
etc. In certain configurations, the tester may also be
utilized as a hardness, toughness, and adhesion tester.