Beyond cost savings: How fillers elevate paint performance
Traditionally seen as cost-saving additives, functional fillers for coatings play a crucial role in enhancing the optical, mechanical, and application properties of decorative paints. By carefully selecting the best filler type, particle size, and PVC level, formulators can achieve a perfect balance of enhanced performance and efficiency, unlocking superior coating durability, opacity, and application benefits.
Performance advantages of optimised fillers:
Fine-tuning filler properties can transform paint performance, ensuring coatings that meet the highest industry standards.
- Enhanced opacity: High PVC formulations with lamellar and acicular fillers create air pockets that boost light scattering, improving dry opacity.
- Superior wet scrub resistance: Harder, larger fillers reinforce paint films, reducing wear and extending longevity.
- Improved stain resistance: A strategic filler mix enhances resistance to both oil- and water-based stains, delivering easy-to-clean surfaces.
- Optimized water absorption: The right mineralogy and filler size control capillary water absorption, a key factor for durable exterior façade coatings.
Key materials:
We analysed four filler types, testing each across two particle sizes at two PVC levels (40% and 70%), and combined them with vinyl acetate ethylene (VAE) and styrene acrylic binders:
- Talc-Chlorite: Lamellar structure for enhance coverage
- Wollastonite: Acicular structure for improved mechanical durability
- Leucophyllite: Mixed lamellar/irregular structure for balanced properties
- Nepheline Syenite: Nodule/irregular structure for enhanced resistance
Formulation support:
If you are interested in learning more about this formulation work, we are looking forward to sharing our insights. Developed in our laboratories, our formulations use best-performing raw material combinations to meet market and customer requirements, ensuring optimal performance for different applications and conditions.
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