coating equipment

Paint manufacturers use many types of equipment to produce paint. Of primary concern is the uniform dispersion of pigments to maximize the efficiency for color, hiding, and gloss. Un-dispersed pigments can cause havoc to stability, application and appearance of the final film. To accomplish this, equipment is needed that will reduce the agglomerated dry pigment to its primary particle size.

The most commonly used type of equipment is the high speed disperser (fig, 1) which resembles a large mixer with a serrated blade attached to the bottom of the shaft. The pigments are added to the “mill base,” which consists of resin, solvent/water, and any dispersing agents and surfactants added to assist in separating the pigment agglomerates; this mix is then dispersed at high speed (e.g. 900- 1200 rpm). When the resulting paste has reached the final grind  (as tested with a grind gauge) the mixing is slowed and the balance of materials is added. The batch is then tested by the quality control lab for specific properties, adjusted as needed, then passed to the filling crew for packaging.