While most industrial coatings are applied in the factory setting, there are times when those original coatings on installed equipment or other assets must be repaired or replaced. Traditionally, that work has been done manually, presenting safety concerns for the applicators and chemical exposure issues for the environment. New technologies are being developed to enable robotic cleaning and preparation as...
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Core paint and coatings manufacturing processes have remained largely unchanged since the dawn of the industry. Ingredients are mixed into a liquid (organic solvent or water), a process that is often followed by milling to achieve the correct particle size for products comprising dispersions. Despite this, the paint and coatings industry is very dynamic. Business trends, market demands, governmental regulations,...
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Liquid Color Measurement: An Approach for Color Measurement of Liquid Paint and Pigment Preparations The liquid color measurement (LCM) system discussed here is based on a machine layout, where an opaque liquid (paint or pigment preparation) is put on a moving part and measured touchless with a spectrophotometer. In a three-angle layout, this is done on a rotating disk and...
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Waterborne coatings are multi-component, heterogeneous systems containing a variety of additives, in addition to water, polymer binders, and pigment particles. The distribution of various ingredients in the coating films directly affects a coating’s appearance and performance; for example, optical properties, substrate adhesion, chemical resistance, and mechanical durability. Over the years, a plethora of analytical tools have been utilized in coatings...
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In Part 1 (Coatings Tech, May 2018, p.60), I introduced Hansen Solubility Parameters and their theoretical basis. If you have read that article, your first questions probably were how do I find or measure such parameters and how do I use them. Values for solvents and many different polymers may be found in the literature (references 1-4 plus many others)....
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This article outlines an unmet industry need for formulators to conduct robust testing of their coatings products in real-world or simulated environments that closely resemble an OEM facility’s environmental and processing conditions as coatings are applied and cured. The illustrative examples provided in this article are not hypothetical but are based on actual OEM and end-user processes, widely available coatings...
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Part 1 (CoatingsTech, May 2018, p.60) introduced Hansen Solubility Parameters (HSP) and their theoretical basis. Part 2 (CoatingsTech, July 2018, p.76) was concerned with sources for HSP data along with information on applications. Besides being helpful in designing paint formulations, solubility parameters can be very useful in solving problems. This article presents several examples.
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To take nondestructive testing (NDT) measurements at height, equipment such as aerial lifts, scaffolding, ladders, or other solutions are required to reach areas on ships, bridges, aboveground storage tanks, flare stacks, and other infrastructure and industrial sites. This is both dangerous, due to the possibility of falls, and time consuming. In certain instances, it may also require taking an asset,...
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Additives formulating can be resource intensive and time consuming to paint manufacturers due to the plethora of ingredient combinations and interactions that affect performance properties. These challenges may inhibit the efficacy of selected additives, which are particularly important in low-VOC formulations to address foam control, water sensitivity, and general surface properties. Silicone additives in particular are disproportionately influential in impacting...
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Solubility of polymers in solvents is extremely important to the coatings industry. If the solvents in a formulation are not able to dissolve the polymer or polymers to be used, either initially or during the dry or bake, the resultant film will be defective. There are two basic ways to determine solubility of polymers: trial and error, or solubility parameters....
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