This month Coatings World interviewed a number of key suppliers of performance-enhancing additives. These include: Shiona Stewart, industry marketing manager, Transporation, Industrial, Furniture and Floor Coatings, BASF and Mary Ellen Gustainis, business director, Performance and Formulation Additives, BASF; Dr. Joerg Hinnerwisch, BYK technical director Research & Development, Head of Technology Group Wetting & Dispersing; Dave Grabacki, president, keim additc USA; Richard Czarnecki, director of Business Development, Micro Powders, Inc.; Joon Choo, vice president, Shamrock Technologies; Robert Ruckle, market manager at Siltech; Erin Bellomy of Solvay and Dr. Ismael Colon, senior vice resident, Science & Technology at Troy Corp.

CW: What types of performance-enhancing additives does your company offer? 

Stewart: BASF has a broad portfolio of light-stabilizing and UV absorbing technologies as well as formulation additives that enhance application properties, rheological profile, surface aesthetics and appearance, and color integrity for many different types of coating chemistries.  Our extensive family of enabling additives are targeted to provide superior performance for coatings that have been optimized to meet the demanding environments encountered in the Transportation, Industrial, Decorative, Construction, and Flooring Markets.  Our light stabilizing and UV absorbing technologies include a wide range of benzotriazole, triazine, and hindered amine light stabilizer chemistries as well as specialty offerings such as a new and unique photolatent metal catalyst targeted for 2K polyurethane coating systems. 

Hinnerwisch: BYK offers a broad range of performance-enhancing additive solutions, which open up new opportunities for coating and ink formulators. These include wetting and dispersing additives based on novel chemistries, which provide sufficient viscosity reduction and deflocculation properties for inorganic/organic pigments, with the lowest possible performance impact as regards water, corrosion
and staining.

Grabacki: keimgroup with its affiliated producing companies keim additec surface, silcona, euroceras and ceronas is offering besides a broad variety of aqueous ULTRALUBE wax additives and high performance SILCO coating additives also different types of solid/micronized waxes under the brand names CERALENE and mju:wax.

Czarnecki: While Micro Powders began nearly 50 years ago as a supplier of micronized waxes, our particle technology expertise has expanded into the development of high-performance additives that are more functional and efficient.

Choo: Shamrock offers a range of micronized powders and dispersions for a wide variety of coatings systems to improve the surface slip, feel, water repellency, and mar/abrasion resistance, as well as to control the gloss and texture/appearance of
the coatings.

Ruckle:  Siltech offers a wide variety of chemically modified silicones.  The versatility of the silicone polymer allows for attachment of groups that add solubility in oil or water, reactivity, or other unique properties.  Siltech offers a myriad of Silmer reactive silicones each with a reactive group that matches the reactive moieties used in the resin chemistry.  For example, we have epoxy, hydroxyl or primary amine functional Silmer additives any of which react into an epoxy resin system. Siltech even offers NCO functional silicones which can react with urethane prepolymers which often are made with hydroxyl groups exposed rather than NCO.

Bellomy: Solvay provide a series of paint additives for paint formulators. It includes defoamer, wetting, dispersant, high boiling point coalescent and specialty additive, such as VOC free freeze-thaw agent and open time extender.

Colon: As a dedicated supplier of a broad portfolio of advanced additives, in addition to preservatives and driers, Troy Corporation offers a full line of performance-enhancing products, including defoamers, rheology modifiers, thixotropic agents, substrate wetting and flow & leveling additives, mar resistance & slip agents, and dispersants. These performance additives are developed for a broad range of aqueous and non-aqueous system types.

CW: Given the added cost associated with these types of additives, what are the benefits to the customer? 

Gustainis: The customer is essentially given the key to creating high-value, high-performance coatings is protection against a variety of degrading environmental and artificial factors, including solar radiation, temperature change, and chemical interactions.
Thermal degradation that can occur during processing, production, and service life is another main area of concern in the coatings space. BASF’s Irganox portfolio of antioxidants based on sterically hindered phenols, phosphites, and thioethers act to protect coatings, fibers, adhesives, and sealants against thermal oxidation.

Stewart: Our Tinuvin branded chemistries offer extended protection from UV degradation, truly differentiated protection for carbon fiber-reinforced plastics or glass fiber-reinforced plastics where fibers are embedded in an epoxy matrix requiring outstanding photo permanence and protection, and low-no migration throughout the coating and substrate with no exudation in polar solvent borne systems.  Importantly, our Tinuvin chemistries, through the use of our patented BASF Tinuvin Novel Encapsulation Additive Technology, or “NEAT” encapsulation technology, are also able to be modified for use in waterborne coatings.

The versatility and flexibility of our portfolio offers our customers the ability to select the optimum product offering for their unique formulation space. 

Hinnerwisch: Multifunctional BYK wetting and dispersing additives not only promote coating aesthetics and facilitate processing via viscosity reduction, but also improve stain and water resistance capabilities. As such, these additives play a major role in the improvement of a coating’s lifespan, and formulators can add longevity to their products by the cautious selection of BYK’s wetting & dispersing additives for water-borne coatings.

Grabacki: The broad product portfolios of the different companies within the group ensures the possibility of a very precise adjustment of the desired surface properties to achieve with the particular types; besides this several types of additives can be supplied out of “one-hand.”

Czarnecki: We can demonstrate that, with proper particle additive design, a more expensive additive, used at a lower dosage than a lower performance wax, can deliver better performance and economics.

Choo: Some of these additives are unique in the surface effect they can offer, especially to withstand tough processing conditions and for the extended term protective coatings.

Ruckle: Silicone additives provide slip, COF reduction, release, pencil hardness and anti-blocking all from the low surface energy of the silicone polymer.  Many of these can also provide surface tension reduction which leads to wetting, flow and leveling, air release and defect elimination.  Finally the reactive Silmer products will change the mechanical properties of the film typically adding flexibility, elongation, strength and impact resistance.  The inherent properties of the silicone backbone also provide permeability to gases and hydrophobicity.

Bellomy: Solvay solution answer challenging criteria and labeling requirements in the design of sustainable and environmentally-friendly products. Whether it is compliant with eco-labels such as GreenSeal, or suitable for claims and formulation requirements such as low or zero VOC, APE-free, biodegradable or renewable raw materials.

Colon: Value-added performance additives are essential to the formulation, production, and application of high-quality coatings, whether for architectural or industrial use, and aqueous or non-aqueous systems. Wetting and flow & leveling additives, such as Troy’s Troysol products, control a wide range of product properties, enhance surface appearance and integrity, and eliminate film defects. These additives allow the formulation of films with excellent resistance to mar and abrasion, with increased surface slip. Wetting and flow & leveling additives also allow for coating over many substrate types, including contaminated substrates. Dispersants, such as the Troysperse line, ensure optimum color strength and uniformity. Defoamers, such as Troykyd additives, eliminate entrapped air so that bubbles and pinholes don’t degrade the applied coating film. Thixotropic agents and rheology modifiers, like Troy’s Troythix products, improve the storage stability, application, and appearance of manufactured products and production processes, and enable precise control of the rheological properties of the materials to which they are added. Troythix rheology products enable control of viscosity, settling resistance and sag resistance.

CW: What considerations should formulators make when choosing a performance enhancing additive? 

Stewart: There are many critical determinations that need to be considered when selecting the appropriate additives.  Is the intended coating waterborne, solventborne, UV Curable, or powder?  Is the intended substrate known or are multiple substrates in consideration such as metal, plastic, composites, wood, and concrete?  Environmental exposure should also be considered and fully understood to determine what type of UV resistance is needed, especially for harsh exterior environments. This is especially important when selecting additives that will be used in automotive coating, exterior decking.  

Maintaining color integrity, resistance to fading and mechanical properties of organic substrates, as well as preventing delamination and gloss reduction from occurring in coatings due to years of exposure to degrading environmental factors such as UV rays is where BASF brings value to our customers.

Gustainis: Another key factor for formulators to consider is the type of activities that are required to produce the product. Thermal degradation encountered during processing steps such as synthesis, mixing, curing, or high-temperature-baking cycles is the main cause of yellowing, embrittlement, or loss of other mechanical properties such as tensile strength in
organic substrates.

Hinnerwisch: Pigment dispersions and their challenges for waterborne coatings are just one crucial aspect for paint formulators. In order to improve the overall performance of water-borne coatings, one should keep in mind all formulation components, such as rheological/surface modifiers, emulsifiers or thickeners and their interactions.

Grabacki: Besides satisfying the general technical needs at an adequate price/performance ratio especially more and more requests reaching us for environmentally acceptable (“green”) additives. We are facing this challenge by offering formulated products e.g. being VOC-free, without amines or other hazardous ingredients.

Czarnecki: Some of the factors we consider when recommending an additive are system type (water/solvent/UV), dry film thickness, and end use. We make recommendations to customers on a daily basis through our website since it can be intimidating to find the best additive for a given project.

Choo: Not all additives are created equal, nor will they offer the same degree of efficacy. Formulators ought to consider their ease of use/incorporation, stability and compatibility with their system, as well as the immediate vs long term performance features they impart.

Ruckle: There are many variables in silicone additives including molecular weight, molecular architecture, degree and type of functionality and cross-linking which affect the properties.  In particular, one has to be careful to ensure the additive has the right solubility so choosing the right additive for your situation is critical.  While some properties like foam control and release benefit from incompatibility too much incompatibility can cause problems from gloss reduction to defect formation.

Bellomy:  Usually, the formulator may consider the overall performance of  paint, such as color tinting strength, application work-ability and paint film durability. The costing is also considerate.

Colon: When choosing a performance-enhancing additive, formulators should consider system type – aqueous or non-aqueous – as well as pH, application temperature, and the type of incorporation the additive and the formulator’s manufacturing processes require. Furthermore, VOC and APEO requirements should be taken into account. Troy offers a broad portfolio of performance additives for every system type, including Z-line additives, which are zero VOC and APEO-free for modern ‘green’ systems. The new Troysperse ZWD line of dispersants is an excellent example of these ‘green’ products.

CW: What are the latest technologies being developed for additives in paint and coatings?

Stewart: Reactive technologies are growing in interest, because the reactivity offers almost synergistic effects, for incredible performance enhancement.  For example, our new reactive dispersant crosslinks into the main resin matrix for optimum hardness, while still delivering beautiful pigment dispersion…this is atypical for dispersants, where hardness and dispersing efficiency are often at odds with one another. 

Hinnerwisch: Multifunctional additives are gaining popularity all the time. BYK provides “smart” wetting and dispersing additives, which adjust their polarity in response to the changing chemical environment.

Since the additive undergoes a structural change and rearrangement during the drying process, the resulting architecture provides a reduction of water pick-up and, as such, improves the water resistance of the coating.

Grabacki: Today’s paint market is pushing for low- /non-emission paints. Solvents are no longer formulated. By that reason the time frame to rework painted areas is shortened and the open time needs to be extended.

SILCONA developed an open time extender without the negative side effects of decreased stain resistance or longterm stickiness. 

Choo: Surface and morphology modifications as well as the use of hybrid polymer/blends seem to be the trend today, to help ensure ease of incorporation, stability post incorporation, as well as ability to wet out easily at high loadings when concentrates are preferred for some production lines. Some formulated additive packages are also developed to be compliant with the changing regulatory environment.

Ruckle: Siltech is offering Silmer TMS products which are trialkoxy silane functional silicone derivatives. These provide interesting surface properties and help with adhesion, stain release and interaction with other surfaces such as pigments  This last property has been utilized by formulating Silmer TMS and mineral particles into super hydropbobic systems. These have also recently been shown to provide a secondary condensation cure in certain UV cured systems.

We have also recently developed Silmer ACRN products which are tetrafunctional UV reactive products that provide slip, flexibility and impact resistance with less problems from immiscibility such as loss of clarity or gloss.

Finally, our Silmer UACR products are hybrid urethane/silicone polymers designed to improve elongation in UV cured systems including 3D printing systems.

Bellomy:  Solvay just launched formaldehyde scavenger additive Rhodoline FS 360 for paint producer. With this additive, the paint producer can easily achieve formaldehyde scavenger properties by post adding to various different paint formulations.

Colon: Troy is a company built on innovation, and is committed to the research & development of the latest technologies to enable customers to lead in the marketplace. ‘Green,’ zero-VOC additives, such as Troy’s expanding Z-line, are increasingly important, and will remain the focus of R&D efforts. Multifunctional additives, such as Troykyd D209W and Troykyd D767, are also an important focus of our efforts. Multifunctional additives that perform the function of numerous additives are of interest to customers, as they simplify the formulation process, contribute less material and expense to formulations, and reduce inventory.

Troykyd D209W air release additive prevents micro- and macro-foam in both the process and application of a broad range of coating systems. The product provides high efficacy with good compatibility, significantly reducing or eliminating the occurrence of film defects.

Troykyd D767 is a highly effective mineral oil-free and silicone-free defoamer for aqueous systems. It is effective over a wide range of pH, temperatures, viscosities,
and sheens. 

CW: Please provide a brief description of up to two new performance enhancing additives.

Stewart: Solyfast 0010 is an organotin-free photolatent metal catalyst recommended for use in curing 2-component polyurethane systems and provides a wide variety of benefits due to its unique ability to accelerate cure times with low energy (ambient) temperatures.  This performance benefit addresses the issues associated with having to heat very large objects, such as the wing of an airplane, or heat-sensitive parts such as plastic components, or even heavy metal exterior structures.  Solyfast 0010 will also increase production productivity via faster throughput, and short handling or moving times of recently coated parts.

Tinuvin 249 is a non-basic hindered amine light stabilizer designed to meet the high-performance requirements of solventborne Automotive, Industrial, or Decorative Coatings that demand superior formulation compatibility and outstanding thermal, color, and shelf stability.

Hinnerwisch: Wetting & dispersing additives play a critical role in the formulation of water-borne coatings; however, their hydrophilic structural moieties can impair the coating properties. DISPERBYK-2080 and DISPERBYK-2081 provide excellent viscosity reduction in inorganic pigments and fillers, without negatively affecting water and corrosion resistance. This is especially important for anticorrosive primers and DTM coatings, as well as industrial wood coatings, where stain resistance is expected.

Grabacki: SILCO OZ 100 retards water within the film and is an open time extender for paints and coatings. The product provides additionally gloss enhancement as well as wetting properties without effecting the stain resistance or hardness of the film. mju:wax 9200 – micronized wax modified FT-wax compound for solvent based coatings. Provides; outstanding metal marking resistance, excellent slip properties, very good anti-blocking properties and scratch resistance.

Czarnecki: Micro Powders has offered products based on our Composite Wax Technology for many years. In recent years, we expanded this technology to include a range of HD (high density) powders, specifically designed for better stability in water based and UV systems.  Most recently, we pioneered the concept of Nanocomposite Wax Technology, where we incorporate highly functional nanomaterials into a safe, easy to disperse powders.  We now offer four products in our AL (alumina) series that offer best-in-class scratch and Taber abrasion resistance.

Choo: Shamrock Neptune 250-SD2 is an example of a recent additive that was introduced bearing some of the above factors and performance features. AquaFLON MG represents the best balance of hybrid polymers available as a pre-dispersion for use in water based inks and coatings.

Bellomy: Rhodoline FS 360 is a high-performance formaldehyde scavenger additive. High formaldehyde scavenging efficiency/capacity; no negative impact on paint performance, such as yellowing, heat stability, wet scrub resistance; formulation and process flexibility; can formulate both low and high PVC paint and can be both used in new formulation or post-added to existing formula and low VOC, low odor.