Weather: One Company’s Journey to Understand the Exterior Durability of Paints and Coatings

One can imagine that those inquirers might also think that the only thing more boring than watching paint dry would be watching it weather over time. How wrong they would be! In fact, understanding how coatings hold up to weathering is critically important for the success of the industry. Many raw material suppliers, coatings manufacturers, and coatings end users have exterior testing programs in place to evaluate the effect of weathering on their products. Such programs are useful throughout the various stages of product development from guiding initial experiments and prototypes to product optimization and commercialization. In this article, one such program that has been evolving for nearly seven decades is profiled. CoatingsTech had the unique opportunity to visit Dow’s Exposure Station in Spring House, PA, to tour the facility and discuss the science behind weathering paints with John Calderaio, exposure station manager, and Katherine Davis, marketing manager for North America. Both are members of Dow’s Coating Materials business unit. Dow is a leading materials science company and global raw material supplier to the coatings industry. As long as paints and coatings have been used outdoors, coatings scientists have been trying to find ways to make them last longer. The durability of coatings in the face of environmental stresses is a key property for exterior coatings. Depending on the location and climate in which they are put into service, exterior coatings experience various levels of exposure to destructive elements such as sunlight, water (e.g., rain, ice, condensation, humidity, or immersion), dirt, corrosive salts, changes and extremes in temperature, impact (e.g., from hail), and microbiological attack (e.g., mold, mildew, algae).