Impact of Formulation Changes on Rheology Modifiers in Low VOC Industrial Coatings

Abstract In industrial coatings, the legislations is strongly pushing toward lower VOC content. Around the world, Governments, paint manufacturers and final users are still discussing viable options, but there is no doubt that challenges related to higher solid content in paint formulations will keep increasing. For less demanding industrial coating, waterborne and powder coating systems are trendier. This pushes formulators to consider waterborne in formulations with high corrosion requirements (up to C4). In solventless and solvent free industrial coatings, controlling the viscosity to be able to use standard spray equipment without further dilution, or changing for less hazardous solvents without compromising good application properties have driven the design of modern formulations. All these challenges are linked to the rheology and therefore rheology modifiers can be an essential help to maintain a high level of performance while reducing VOC in industrial coatings. In this contribution, case studies showing the impact of those formulation changes on the performance of Crayvallac / Polyamide rheology modifiers will be introduced.