Walee Wang – ZHEJIANG CHANG’AN RENHENG TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD
INTRODUCTION
The global coatings industry is undergoing a transformative phase, driven by escalating environmental concerns and regulatory pressures. Governments and environmental agencies worldwide are imposing stricter limits on volatile organic compounds (VOCs), carbon emissions, and hazardous substances like heavy metals. These regulations are particularly challenging for wood coatings, which must maintain high performance while reducing environmental impact. In this context, rheological additives have emerged as critical components in coating formulations. Their ability to control viscosity, prevent sagging, and ensure proper pigment dispersion directly impacts the application quality and durability of the final product. However, traditional additives often fall short in meeting both performance and environmental requirements. This article explores how advanced solutions like the Clayminton® series are bridging this gap, offering sustainable alternatives without compromising on quality.
NEXT-GENERATION SOLUTIONS: ORGANOCLAY RHEOLOGY MODIFIERS
The Clayminton® series represents a significant leap forward in rheological additive technology. Developed through advanced organic modification of high-purity montmorillonite, prothese additives are engineered to overcome the shortcomings of traditional options.
One of the most striking features of these additives is their exceptional purity. Unlike conventional bentonites, which often contain mineral impurities that affect performance, these next-generation products maintain consistent quality batch after batch.
This purity translates directly into improved coating clarity and color fidelity, making them ideal for applications where visual appearance is critical.
The dispersibility of these additives sets them apart in practical applications. Traditional bentonites typically require polar activators or extensive mechanical energy to achieve proper dispersion. In contrast, these products incorporate easily under normal mixing conditions, significantly reducing processing time and energy consumption. This characteristic not only improves production efficiency but also contributes to more sustainable manufacturing processes. From a performance standpoint, these additives demonstrate remarkable versatility. They provide excellent viscosity build at low shear rates, ensuring superior sag resistance during application, while maintaining appropriate flow characteristics at high shear rates for optimal sprayability. This balanced rheological profile enables formulators to achieve the desired application properties without compromising film quality.
The thermal stability of these additives is particularly noteworthy. Many conventional rheological modifiers degrade or lose effectiveness when exposed to elevated temperatures during storage or application. Clayminton® products maintain their performance characteristics even under prolonged thermal stress, ensuring consistent behavior throughout the coating’s lifecycle.
APPLICATIONS
The unique properties of Clayminton® additives make them suitable for a wide range of demanding applications:
– in wood coatings, they excel in both opaque and transparent formulations, providing excellent pigment suspension while maintaining clarity in clear coats.
– For industrial coatings, their ability to maintain performance in high-solid systems makes them invaluable for meeting VOC regulations without sacrificing application properties.
– In specialty applications like automotive topcoats or marine coatings, their combination of rheological control and environmental resistance offers distinct advantages over conventional additives.
CASE STUDY: WOOD COATINGS AND ENVIRONMENTAL COMPLIANCE
The wood coatings sector faces unique challenges in adapting to environmental regulations while maintaining performance standards. Traditional solvent-based systems, while offering excellent application properties, are increasingly being replaced by waterborne or high-solid alternatives to comply with VOC restrictions.
Clayminton® additives have proven particularly effective in these next-generation formulations. In waterborne wood coatings, they provide the necessary rheological control to compensate for the inherently different flow characteristics compared to solvent-based systems. Their excellent compatibility with various waterborne resin systems allows formulators to achieve the desired balance between open time, leveling, sag control, anti-settling properties etc. For example, Clayminton® LB or EJ is one unique inorganic bentonite-based rheology modifier which could improve sag control, anti-settling, pigment suspension without obvious impact on mid-shear viscosities. Clayminton® HT or HE could be used in w/b wood coatings to improve mid-shear and low-shear viscosities, both also improve excellent sag control, anti-settling, pigment suspension, open time improvement as well as water resistance.
For high-solid wood coatings, these additives enable formulators to overcome the viscosity challenges associated with low-solvent systems.
Their efficient thickening action allows for higher solid content without compromising application properties, directly contributing to reduced VOC emissions. In Alkyd resin based wood coatings, Clayminton® 71 or 81 could be recommended to achieve excellent balanced performance. Especially, Clayminton® 81 contributes superior transparency, dispersibility, whiteness, low haze, no impact on flow properties, and excellent anti-settling property with low mid-shear viscosities increase.
In 2KPU wood coatings, Clayminton® 72 or 82 will be strongly recommended due to unique overall performance contribution.
A particularly noteworthy application is in UV-curable wood coatings, where these additives like Clayminton® 76 helps maintain proper pigment suspension during the curing process while contributing to the desired film properties. Meanwhile, this additive could provide superior compatibility and dispersibility with UV resin. Their stability under UV exposure ensures consistent performance throughout the coating’s service life.
CONCLUSION
The coatings industry’s future lies in developing solutions that satisfy both performance demands and environmental responsibilities. The Clayminton® series of rheological additives represents a significant step in this direction, offering formulators a tool to create highperformance, sustainable coating systems.
As regulations continue to evolve and performance expectations rise, continued innovation in additive technology will be essential.
For researchers and formulators, these advanced additives open new possibilities in coating design, enabling the creation of products that meet the most stringent requirements while delivering outstanding performance in real-world applications. In Europe, this additives range is offered through Solindis, supporting local customers with tailored technical service and supply solutions.
Solindis is the official European distributor of the additives manufactured by Zhejiang Chang’an Renheng Technology Co., Ltd.
