Driving Balance of Properties in Industrial Coatings

As customer needs and regulations drive VOC demands lower, difficulties arise when attempting to balance the multitude of film properties that consumers require. Currently, the lowest VOC restriction for waterborne industrial maintenance coatings is 100g/L, which can be a challenging target for coatings designed to offer substrate protection in addition to aesthetics. Traditionally, polymer hardness has been sacrificed through Tg reduction to ensure film formation at a reduced solvent demand. This can have a significant impact on film hardness, block and tack.

Delivering high VOC performance at <100g/L requires balancing often competing properties. This can be accomplished through systematic polymer design optimizing all polymer composition and processing components in conjunction with formulation strategies. A next generation 100g/L-capable styrenated acrylic resin designed to meet these needs is discussed in comparison to current technologies. In addition, a review of direct-to-metal (DTM) polymer design and formulation is presented along with expected tradeoffs when attempting to emphasize certain coating properties.

Presented at the Western Coatings Show in October, 2015