The Enduring Value of a DiverseArchitectural Coatings Portfolio

In an industry increasingly focused on breakthrough innovation, it is easy to overlook the role that successful, legacy materials play in successful paint formulations. In fact, many of today’s highest performing and most popular architectural coatings rely on technologies that have been refined over decades, especially materials that formulators know, trust, and can confidently incorporate into balanced systems that address both performance and cost targets.

A diverse coatings raw material portfolio that includes binders, rheology modifiers, dispersants, and specialty additives is essential to achieving the performance, application, cost, and formulation flexibility demands of modern paint manufacturers. Established products in these categories often serve as formulation anchors offering predictable performance, wide formulation latitude, and supply chain stability, while enabling premium, high durability paints to value oriented systems optimized for cost and efficiency.

Binders define the foundation of film formation, durability, and appearance, while rheology modifiers control flow behavior, leveling, and application feel. Dispersants support efficient pigment wetting and color development, and silicone additives further refine the surface properties enhancing slip, mar resistance, and overall aesthetics. When appropriately selected and balanced, these components work together to help formulators achieve targeted performance across a wide range of
architectural coatings.

The following products showcase how Dow’s architectural coatings portfolio translates material science into meaningful performance, versatility, and formulation flexibility.

Achieving High End Performance and Differentiation

Premium binders are engineered to deliver high levels of stain resistance, scrub durability, aesthetics, and long lasting performance. As a result, they are commonly used in flagship interior paints, paint and primer systems, and formulations positioned at the top of a brand’s portfolio. The products highlighted below demonstrate how the right binder choice can help formulators achieve demanding performance claims while maintaining formulation flexibility across multiple sheens and bases.

EVOQUE™ 3150C 100% Acrylic Emulsion is a premium resin designed to improve titanium dioxide (TiO₂) efficiency while offering excellent overall film performance. Its advanced polymer architecture helps enable strong hiding at reduced TiO₂ levels, offering a valuable tool for formulators navigating raw material optimization while maintaining excellent performance.

Beyond hiding, EVOQUE™ 3150C supports excellent scrub resistance, household stain removal, and blocking resistance. Its formulation flexibility allows use across interior and exterior flat to semi gloss coatings, making it well suited for premium paints and paint and primer applications that require both visual appeal and long term performance (Figure 1 & Figure 2).

RHOPLEX™ VSR-1065C 100% Acrylic Emulsion complements EVOQUE™ Polymers by offering a balanced combination of stain resistance, durability, and dirt pickup resistance through a traditional acrylic resin system (Figure 3). Often selected for high quality interior and exterior architectural coatings, this binder helps formulators achieve robust performance while maintaining consistent application properties across product lines, all with one resin. 

Versatile Workhorses for Broad Market Needs

Standard acrylic binders are the backbone of many architectural paint lines. They offer a balanced performance profile that supports interior and exterior durability with good stain and scrub resistance. These binders also impart great formulation latitude, with tunable performance up and down the quality scale through formulation strategies.

RHOPLEX™ 101C 100% Acrylic Emulsion is a versatile binder widely recognized as a “workhorse” in architectural coatings. It offers a balanced combination of early block resistance, scrub durability, and stain resistance to achieve consistent performance across a wide range of paint formulations.

Its formulation flexibility makes RHOPLEX™ 101C suitable for both interior and exterior applications in the DIY segment (Figure 4). For formulators seeking reliability and successful performance, it remains a dependable foundational resin.

RHOPLEX™ 2601 100% Acrylic Emulsion is designed to access trademark all acrylic performance in more economy-quality formulations. Frequently used in value driven formulations, it is easily blended with poly vinyl acrylic (PVA) resins to fine-tune blend ratios and film properties and for an overall balanced formulation. Cleansability is one of the most challenging tests within the MPI standards and is often where PVA systems fail. Utilizing RHOPLEX™ 2601 Emulsion as a blend vehicle can
enable passing.

RHOPLEX™ 2601 demonstrates how standard binders can balance performance and cost efficiency without compromising formulation stability or application quality (Figure 5).

Value-Driven Solutions with Proven Utility

Vinyl acrylic binders play a critical role in helping to enable accessible, value focused paints. They offer reliable film formation, durability, and processing advantages that support high volume production, particularly in professional paint formulation segments.

ROVACE™ 10 Emulsion is known for its good shear stability and scrub resistance, making it suitable for a range of higher quality interior wall paints. 

ROVACE™ 9900 Emulsion offers consistent performance in traditional architectural coatings while supporting specific formulation needs, especially in systems with a desired lower coalescent demand.

ROVACE™ 9100AF Emulsion is a higher Tg, traditional vinyl acrylic binder that offers film hardness advantages. Often used where toughness and resistance are priorities, it supports durable finishes in select interior applications.

Collectively, ROVACE™ Emulsions (Table 1) highlight how the vinyl acrylic class of resins continue to play a vital role in addressing industry segments where cost, reliability, and manufacturability are paramount.

Refining Surface Properties through Slip and Mar Additives

Silicone additives for slip and mar resistance are used to fine-tune surface behavior, improving scratch resistance, abrasion resistance, and overall surface properties (Figure 6). These additives often provide significant performance benefits at low use levels, making them an efficient way to enhance finished coatings.

DOWSIL™ 52 Additive is a silicone dispersion that offers slip and abrasion resistance benefits without impacting other properties. Its ease of incorporation, compatibility, and efficiency at low use levels gives formulators confidence in its performance, making it a dependable choice for both interior and
exterior coatings.                                        

Controlling Flow, Application, and Stability

Rheology modifiers are essential in achieving the desired balance of application feel, sag resistance, in can stability, and more. They help ensure consistent application across rollers, brushes, and spray equipment while maintaining aesthetic quality.

ACRYSOL™ RM-3030 Rheology Modifier is a high efficiency HEUR ICI builder known for offering excellent flow and leveling while supporting good spatter resistance and optimized applied hide, especially when paired with good KU-builder HEUR rheology modifiers (Figure 7). Along with its compatibility with a wide range of binder chemistries, it offers formulators a reliable way to fine tune mid to high shear viscosity, particularly in interior wall paints.

Unlocking Color and Efficiency with Dispersants

Dispersants play a critical role in pigment wetting and stabilization, directly impacting tint strength, color development, and formulation efficiency. Successful dispersants often help enable higher pigment loading and consistent color performance across batches.

TAMOL™ 165A Dispersant is widely used for efficient dispersion of TiO₂ and extenders in flat through gloss architectural coatings. Its effectiveness supports strong hiding and color development for top-tier paints, while contributing to good viscosity control during the grind-making step and improved stain removal, corrosion resistance, and water resistance properties in the dry film.

TAMOL™ 1254 Dispersant is another trusted option for architectural formulations, offering reliable and versatile performance across a range of pigment systems, even in the presence of zinc oxide. This balance of performance from TAMOL™ 1254 makes it a great choice for contractor-grade coating systems.

The TAMOL™ Dispersant family includes both the polyacid and acrylic or polycarboxylate copolymer types (Figure 8).

Successful Technologies, Ongoing Value

While innovation will always drive the future of architectural coatings, legacy products remain foundational to successful paint formulation. Their history of use, well validated performance, and formulation familiarity offer confidence and flexibility—especially in an industry where performance, cost, and sustainability pressures constantly evolve.

By leveraging a diverse portfolio of enhanced, standard, and economy binders—supported by trusted additives, rheology modifiers, and dispersants—formulators can continue to offer high quality paints that address both current and future demands. These established technologies remain essential tools for building reliable, competitive coatings today.

Notes:
• Values presented in this article are typical values and not to be construed as specifications. Users should confirm results by their own tests.
• EVOQUE™ 3150C Acrylic Emulsion, RHOPLEX™ VSR-1065C Acrylic Emulsion, and RHOPLEX™ 101C Acrylic Emulsion have replaced EVOQUE™ 3150 Acrylic Emulsion, RHOPLEX™ VSR-1065 Acrylic Emulsion, and RHOPLEX™ 101, respectively. Long-term performance data of the newer products is under evaluation. Performance is expected to be comparable to the previous products.

• NOTICE: No freedom from infringement of any patent owned by Dow or others is to be inferred. Because use conditions and applicable laws may differ from one location to another and may change with time, Customer is responsible for determining whether products and the information in this document are appropriate for Customer’s use and for ensuring that Customer’s workplace and disposal practices are in compliance with applicable laws and other government enactments. The product shown in this literature may not be available for sale and/or available in all geographies where Dow is represented. The claims made may not have been approved for use in all countries. Dow assumes no obligation or liability for the information in this document. References to “Dow” or the “Company” mean the Dow legal entity selling the products to Customer unless otherwise expressly noted. NO WARRANTIES ARE GIVEN; ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY EXCLUDED.