Orion Offers Easy-to-Disperse Carbon Black for High-jet Waterborne Base Coatings

A new easy-to-disperse carbon black pigment that can produce stable waterborne pigment pastes within minutes – is now available from Orion Engineered Carbons.  Experimental Black XPB 430 was developed to deliver the high jetness and bluish undertones needed for durable, high-quality automotive basecoats.

Rapid and thorough dispersion is essential to improve productivity and achieve waterborne coatings of highly consistent quality.  XPB 430 can be dispersed directly in water and develops the final colorimetric properties within minutes without further milling or further wetting additives.  The recommended paste formulation for XPB 430 contains no wetting agents – only water and a defoamer (at 0.5%).

In comparison tests with other commercial high-jet carbon black pigment powders, XPB 430 achieved high gloss, very low haze coatings with highest jetness values combined with very strong bluish undertones, according to the company.

Test coatings formulated with the XPB 430 paste were compared with several competitive high-jet carbon black pigment powders in equivalent 13% pigment concentrations in binder-free millbases. The competitive carbon black pigments were all well stabilized for comparison (90% active wetting agent to pigment). Final coatings were then prepared at 1.5% pigment concentration letdown in a commercially available 30% polyurethane (PU) dispersion and applied to glass plates for colorimetric testing.