CoatingsPaints, inks, and varnishes have to fulfill a full range of end use properties to guarantee high performance. Homogeneity, dispersibility, high and low shear viscosity, curing and drying kinetics are key parameters to be controlled to develop the best materials.
Sedimentation and aggregation of pigments and particles are common issues in the coating industry. Detecting sedimentation using visual observation or particle size evolution using particle size analyzer remain a challenge and provide partial information by focusing on particle size in diluted media.
Turbiscan provides a fast and accurate answer for pigment and particle sedimentation, with detection capacity up to 1,000 times faster than visual observation. Turbiscan also provides a quantitative analysis of the sedimentation and particle size variation to rank samples for clear formulation optimization or quality control.
It is crucial to optimize drying/curing time and understand the influence of temperature and humidity. Curinscan allows for optimization of formulas by objectively determining their drying/curing time. This precise instrument is highly sensitive to different curing kinetics and allows for a multi-layer application analysis of any substrate, under realistic conditions.
Ink and coating formulations require an accurate and precise characterization of the rheological behavior, over a wide shear rate range from low to extremely high, and close to the process condition. This correlates directly with the quality of the coating layer, its homogeneity, and the performance of the process.
The microfluidic system Fluidicam provides a full rheological characterization of formulations at ranges of shear rates between 100 – 180,000 s-1, in less than 3 minutes per flow curve and with less than 4 mL per sample.
