Coating Additives Insights & Technical Guides
Industry insights, technical articles and practical formulation guides from ASTRA experts
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Formulators: Process First Foam Control for Mixing (Save up to 8%)
Formulators: Process First Foam Control for Mixing (Save up to 8%) ! Foam control mixing process title card Foam during mixing is typically controllable when process fixes come first and chemistry comes second: reduce vortexing, switch to under-surface powder induction or inline recirculation, and r…
Reduce Milling Time 20–60% for Formulators With Production Tested Tactics
Reduce Milling Time 20–60% for Formulators With Production Tested Tactics ! Decorative milling efficiency title card illustration To reduce milling time most reliably, prioritize media selection (smaller, higher-density beads), raise controlled tip speed and flow rate for multiple-pass grinding, and…
5 Variables Formulators Must Screen Before Custom Defoamer Formulation
5 Variables Formulators Must Screen Before Custom Defoamer Formulation ! Decorative custom defoamer formulation title card A custom defoamer formulation is justified once an off-the-shelf product fails repeatedly under real process conditions, whether from extreme pH, high surfactant load, elevated…
Formulators: Inkjet Pigment Dispersion Specs to Prevent Nozzle Failures
Formulators: Inkjet Pigment Dispersion Specs to Prevent Nozzle Failures ! Inkjet pigment dispersion technical title card An inkjet pigment dispersion is a concentrated suspension of milled pigment particles stabilized in a liquid carrier, engineered to jet cleanly through a printhead without settlin…
Reproduce Paint Yield Stress for Formulators & Labs with ASTM D7836
Reproduce Paint Yield Stress for Formulators & Labs with ASTM D7836 ! Paint yield stress ASTM title card Yield stress is the minimum shear stress required to make a paint flow, and it governs the trade-off between resisting sag and settling while still leveling smoothly after application.
How to Achieve Uniform Effect Pigment Dispersion Without Losing Optical Effect
How to Achieve Uniform Effect Pigment Dispersion Without Losing Optical Effect ! Decorative title card with pigment and dispersant illustrations The best-practice route to stable effect pigment dispersion is controlled pre-wetting followed by measured mechanical energy, not brute-force milling.
What Causes Color Strength Loss in Coatings and Inks
What Causes Color Strength Loss in Coatings and Inks ! Decorative title card illustration for chemical coatings article Color strength loss is the measurable reduction in a pigment's tinting power, whether the culprit is poor dispersion, flocculation, a shift in pigment crystal phase, or damage from…
Wetting vs Dispersing: What Actually Separates the Two
Wetting vs Dispersing: What Actually Separates the Two ! Decorative title card illustration Wetting agents lower liquid surface tension so a resin or solvent can spread across a pigment surface; dispersing agents adsorb onto that wetted surface and keep particles apart once the mill has broken them…
Additive Lead Times: What to Expect and How to Shorten Them
Additive Lead Times: What to Expect and How to Shorten Them ! Decorative title card illustration Specialty formulation additives, including dispersants, defoamers, and rheology modifiers, typically move from purchase order to delivery in 10 to 30 days, according to chemical industry supply-chain dat…
How to Qualify Additive Suppliers Before the First Order
How to Qualify Additive Suppliers Before the First Order ! Decorative title card illustrating supplier qualification theme The minimum evidence required to approve a new additive supplier for a trial order is a Certificate of Analysis (CoA), a Safety Data Sheet (SDS), a Technical Data Sheet (TDS), a…
Achieving Stable Pigment Dispersion in Coatings and Inks
Achieving Stable Pigment Dispersion in Coatings and Inks ! Decorative title card illustration Achieving a stable pigment dispersion requires three sequential steps: wetting, deagglomeration, and stabilization.
Dispersant Pricing: A Procurement Buyer's Cost Guide
Dispersant Pricing: A Procurement Buyer's Cost Guide ! Decorative chemical industry title card illustration Standard-grade anionic and nonionic dispersants trade at $2.
Adhesive Pigment Dispersion Selection for Formulation Chemists
Adhesive Pigment Dispersion Selection for Formulation Chemists ! Decorative title card with chemical and pigment dispersion icons An adhesive pigment dispersion is a pre-dispersed pigment paste or suspension engineered to deliver stable, reproducible color and opacity when let down into an adhesive…
Dispersant Dosage Calculation: A Surface-Area Method
Dispersant Dosage Calculation: A Surface-Area Method ! Decorative title card illustration for dispersant dosage article Start with pigment surface area, not a percentage from a spec sheet.
Pseudoplastic vs Thixotropy: The Real Difference Explained
Pseudoplastic vs Thixotropy: The Real Difference Explained ! Decorative title card with rheology and chemical themes A material is pseudoplastic when its viscosity drops as shear rate increases, and that drop happens instantaneously, with no time lag.
Flow vs. Leveling in Coatings: A Formulator's Guide
Flow vs. Leveling in Coatings: A Formulator's Guide !
Zeta Potential in Dispersions: A Formulator's Guide
Zeta Potential in Dispersions: A Formulator's Guide ! Decorative graphical title card illustrating dispersion and zeta potential concepts Zeta potential is the electrokinetic potential at the slipping plane, the boundary between the tightly bound ion layer surrounding a particle and the bulk dispers…
Titanium Dioxide Dispersion: High-Solid, Low-Viscosity Guide
Titanium Dioxide Dispersion: High-Solid, Low-Viscosity Guide ! Decorative title card illustration for titanium dioxide dispersion article A low-molecular-weight sodium polyacrylate (PAAS) dispersant strategy, combined with a controlled order-of-addition and wet milling sequence, is the most reliable…
Carbon Black Dispersion: Practical Methods for Formulators
Carbon Black Dispersion: Practical Methods for Formulators ! Recommended Image Reliable carbon black dispersion requires three sequential actions: complete wetting of aggregate surfaces, controlled mechanical breakup of agglomerates, and chemical stabilization against re-agglomeration.
Fisheyes in Paint: Causes, Prevention, and Repair
Fisheyes in Paint: Causes, Prevention, and Repair ! Close-up of fisheye paint defects on metal panel Fisheyes in paint are small, circular craters that form in a wet film immediately after spraying, where surface contamination or a surface-tension imbalance has repelled the coating from the substrat…
Additives for Epoxy Systems: A Complete Selection Guide
Why epoxy coatings and flooring systems fail without a purpose-built additive set, how defoamers, dispersants, leveling agents, adhesion promoters, reactive silicone modifiers, antistatic additives and thixotropes are matched to epoxy chemistry, and which formulation errors create craters, amine blush or poor adhesion on concrete.
Additives for Polyurethane Coatings: A Complete Selection Guide
Why 2K PU chemistry is ruled by the isocyanate, how reactive silicone modifiers bond into the PU network, and how to choose adhesion promoters, dispersants, defoamers, slip additives and rheology modifiers for solvent-borne 2K PU, waterborne PU and PU flooring systems.
Rheology Modifiers for Coatings: A Practical Selection Guide
Why rheology is the most underestimated property in paint formulations, how Newtonian, pseudoplastic and thixotropic behaviour differ, how associative acrylic, alkali-swellable, polyurethane and wax thickeners work in waterborne systems, and how to select and dose them without sagging or settling.
Defoamers for Coatings: Silicone vs Silicone-Free Selection Guide
How foam forms and survives, why the crater trade-off is physics rather than a product flaw, the two-stage addition rule, and the defoamer-wetting agent antagonism every formulator has to manage.
The Complete Guide to Coating Additives: Selection, Chemistry, and Formulation
A senior formulator's reference to the ten functional additive families that determine whether a coating works in the lab, on the line, and in the field.
Dispersants for Coatings: Selection, Chemistry and Dosage Optimisation
How dispersants work, how to match anchor chemistry to pigment type, how to find the optimal dosage with a three-point test, and the seven mistakes that quietly cost colour strength, gloss and shelf life.
Switching Coating Additive Suppliers: A Practical Migration Guide
How to audit your additive portfolio, match alternatives by function and chemistry instead of brand, run laboratory screening, production trials and customer qualification with minimal risk, and measure the real savings of a supplier switch.
Reactive Diluents and Functional Additives: The Complete Guide
Why reactive diluents cut viscosity without VOC and become part of the film, how terminal groups — OH, epoxy, amino, acrylate — determine compatibility, and how catalysts, siccatives, coalescents and pH buffers shape the cured film.
7 Critical Mistakes in Water-Based Coating Formulation
The seven formulation errors behind most water-based coating failures: why each happens, what it costs, and the specific additive and process changes that fix it.
Adhesion Promoters for Coatings: The Complete Guide
Why coatings delaminate on metals, plastics and repainted surfaces, how coupling agents build a chemical bridge between film and substrate, which chemistry matches which surface, and how to formulate and test adhesion reliably.
Levelling Agents: The Complete Guide to a Perfect Coating Finish
Why surface defects are a surface tension problem, how silicone and silicone-free chemistries differ, the recoatability trade-off that decides most selections, and how to use levelling additives for slip, soft-touch, hammer finish and anti-graffiti effects.
Wetting Agents for Coatings: The Complete Selection Guide
Why coatings crawl, crater and fish-eye, the difference between substrate wetting and pigment wetting, how static and dynamic surface tension decide which product to use, and how to select a wetting agent for waterborne, solvent-borne and UV systems.