Solvent Reduction Technology – What are the Rules?

VOC or volatile organic content has been one of the main driving forces behind coatings technological innovation and research efforts for the past 40 years since the advent of the EPA and the clean air act.1  The approaches to the problem of an ever decreasing VOC has taken two directions. First, the application of the “art” of formulation, where experience and trial and error are used to reduce the level of VOC.  At first, this approach worked but as the levels of allowed VOC dropped it found limits.  The second approach is to use “science” to define what will work and the true rules.  This second approach is the one we use at the Missouri S&T Coatings Institute.
The importance of the use of solvents in coatings has been over blown.  All solvents cost money and are only there to deliver the coating to the substrate, then, they leave.  All solvents cost to ship including water and we should look at solvent as something we would want to eliminate if we can.
The resin and the pigment, including the extender pigments which help lower the coating cost, are the two major paint components influencing the viscosity