The role of leveling agent for water based coating

Leveling agents prevent orange peel, prevent color blooming, prevent matting, light leakage and blooming. The root cause of these defects is an imbalance in surface tension between the surface layer and the lower layer of the solvent-volatile coating film, with the lower layer being low and the upper layer being high. In addition the surface layer is denser than the lower layer.

The lower solvent-rich layer is pushed to the surface by surface tension and gravity causes the surface coating to sink, resulting in a vortex motion of sinking, swelling and rising. The result is a hexagonal grid with irregular edges. This is called a “Bernal” vortex.

The new solvent-rich coating in the center of the grid has low surface tension, pushing it to the edges where it forms small hills, or orange peels.

This movement also leads to different colors and pigment contents. This is the main reason for the uneven distribution of colored and matte lacquer sub-powders leading to the occurrence of light leakage and matting. Functional leveling agent development theory with active liquid flow.

Leveling of coatings has always been the focus of coatings production. Almost every coating has to add leveling agent, because leveling agent can give to the coating excellent leveling agent, paraffin wax emulsion manufacturers can prevent some orange peel, shrinkage and so on.

So the more leveling agent is added, the better it will be? It is not necessarily so, each kind of leveling agent in the paint to bring excellent leveling at the same time, will also bring some corresponding attached role.

Leveling agent is a surface active additives, in adding to the coating, although it can improve its leveling performance, but at the same time will also promote the coating a large number of foam.

So what will happen if too much leveling agent is added?
1. The adhesion of the paint will become poor.
2. The leveling property of the paint will also be counter-productive.
3. The paint will have surface disadvantages such as shrinkage.
4. A large amount of leveling agent will lead to excessive foam in the paint, thus increasing the burden of defoaming.