Study on Stability of Matte Clearcoats for Automotive Sector.

Abstract

Throughout the history of the automotive sector, aesthetic functions have been added to protective functions. One of the causes of that fact is that lots of brands have become this aspect into their hallmark; a clear example is the red of Ferrari or the green of Jaguar. Thus, due to the fact that exists a continuous competence between companies to be the industry leader, paints suffer a fast and continuous evolution process to provide better protection and larger range of colours and effects. That is the reason why AkzoNobel, leading global company headquartered in Amsterdam, has decided to carry out a project to study the gloss stability of matte clearcoats due to their increasing demand. This is a hard task even for the most experienced technicians. That is because these clearcoats are characterized by having a hard gloss adjust due to their non-linear performance on the addition of matting agents. By this study, it is expected to achieve a better comprehension of how the gloss is affected by the coat thickness and by the time. In addition, it is also studied if these clearcoats show good painting reproducibility related to the liquid product stability. For this study, the performance of four currently used clearcoats will be observed and compared in order to determine which of them is the best. With that aim, the clearcoats are prepared using two formulations (A and B) and two different dispersion processes (Cowles and sand mill) and several pieces are painted. Through the obtained results, it is observed that the stability is improved by using the sand mill dispersion and that the most stable clearcoat is the one which uses the formulation B and the sand mill dispersion.