How to Boost Colorant and Pigment Efficiency with Coating Additives

In the realm of coating manufacturing, achieving vibrant and consistent colors is paramount. Pigments and colorants are the elements in formulations that provide a coating's color. But these components alone are not always enough to provide the best color possible in a formulation.

Coating additives can be added to help optimize the efficiency of pigments and colorants, helping manufacturers produce coatings with superior appearance and performance. Wetting and dispersing additives are commonly used to enhance the dispersion of pigments, while novel additive technologies like color boosters and compatibilizers have been designed to overcome compatibility and tinting issues with universal colorants.

This newsletter will delve into the variety of additives available, their specific functions, and how they can be leveraged to maximize colorant potential, offering valuable insights for coating professionals aiming to refine their color production processes.

Improving Pigment Dispersions with Wetting & Dispersing Agents

In the pursuit of enhancing color in coatings, manufacturers often face several challenges. One of the primary issues is achieving uniform pigment dispersion, which is crucial for performance properties that include:

• Color strength
• Opacity
• Transparency

Without proper dispersion, pigments can form agglomerates, leading to uneven color distribution. Other issues that can occur include pigment settling, rub out, and flocculation.

Unfortunately, dispersing pigments can consume time and energy when formulating coatings.

Wetting and dispersing agents help save time and energy by working to enhance pigment wetting, grind times, and stabilization to help achieve excellent color and overall appearance.

As there are different types of pigments on the market, Borchi? Gen dispersant options are available for specific pigment types. Organic pigments and carbon black pigments have smaller particle sizes, making them more difficult to disperse. Inorganic pigments like titanium dioxide and iron oxides have larger particle sizes, making them easier to disperse than organic pigments.

Borchi? Gen wetting and dispersing agents are available to suit a variety of pigments.

Enhancing Universal Colorant Performance with Post-Addition Additives

Universal colorants are pigment dispersions designed to be used in as many systems as possible. These colorants are suitable for use with a variety of latex paints, long oil alkyds, enamels, and wood stains. Universal colorants are also popular in point-of-sale or in-plant tinters as well as with formulators who do not grind their own pigments.

As universal colorants are intended to be used as a single dispersion line that performs the same across a wide range of technologies, performance issues are bound to occur.

Common challenges with universal colorants include:

• Incompatibility with coatings
• Loss of color performance
• Visible defects

Additives can be vital in ensuring quality performance for universal colorants in coatings. Additives such as Borchi? Boost color boosters and Borchi? Add compatibilizers are specially designed to improve colorant performance in various base chemistries.

Color boosters allow colorants to achieve higher tinting strength, meaning less pigment is needed to achieve the desired color intensity, thus improving production efficiency.

Furthermore, compatibilizer additives help in overcoming compatibility issues when using universal colorants across different systems, like waterborne colorants with solventborne bases. By doing so, they prevent defects such as flooding and floating, which can lead to uneven color distribution.

In essence, additives can be crucial for achieving high-quality, consistent, and vibrant coatings.

Color Boosters

Borchi? Boost color boosters are paint color additives that enhance color strength and acceptance for ready-made dispersions or colorants. These additives can be post-added into formulations utilizing colorant concentrates that are designed for the resin type used in the base paint (e.g., waterborne colorants used in waterborne paints, solventborne colorants used in solventborne paints).

Performance benefits include improved include color strength and reduced rubout.

Compatibilizers

With the move to reduce VOC levels in alkyd-based coatings (particularly for DIY applications), these formulations often contain colorants that have a different resin type from the base paint (i.e., are incompatible with one another). This can result in dull color and rub out.

Compatibilizers like Borchi? Add products help enhance compatibility between VOC-free waterborne colorants and low-VOC solventborne alkyd systems.

Performance benefits include maintaining color after brush application and reduced rub out.

Several Borchi? Boost and Borchi? Add product options are available.

Choosing the Right Additive for Your Needs

Selecting the appropriate additive for your coating process can significantly impact the final product's color quality and performance.

The choice depends on several factors, including the pigment type, base chemistry, desired aesthetic properties, and specific application requirements.

Products like Borchi? Gen dispersants help stabilize pigments and achieve uniform dispersions.

Borchi? Boost color boosters are ideal for boosting colorant performance, making them suitable for coatings that require vibrant colors.

If your primary concern is compatibility across multiple systems, Borchi? Add compatibilizers are tailored to improve universal colorant performance in formulations where the resin type is different between the colorant and base paint.

By carefully evaluating these factors, you can choose an additive that meets your specific needs and enhances your coating formulations.

Reach out to us to learn more about the best additive solutions for the pigments and colorants you're working with.