Whether it’s paints and protective coatings, textiles, or printing inks and coatings, the needs of formulators can be as unique as the number of products they develop. It’s important that formulators have access to effective resin, dispersion and additive solutions to enhance the performance of their products across a wide range of applications, from surface protection and dispersion to adhesion and barrier properties.

For paints and coatings, that performance primarily means protection and decoration, but can also refer to corrosion prevention, chemical and stain resistance, scratch and mar endurance, barrier properties, controlled adhesion, and color development. For textiles, coatings are used to enhance the value of materials by extending their useful life, preserving their aesthetic appearance, and delivering performance and protective features. For printing inks and coatings, it’s about achieving the right balance of quality, durability and aesthetics.

Regardless of the market, formulators increasingly need solutions that can help navigate multiple challenges and opportunities, such as increasing regulation, the need for more sustainable options, rising raw materials costs and more.

Developing effective resin and additive solutions starts with the raw material building blocks, and knowing how to combine the right ones for the right application. These building blocks for polyurethane dispersion (PUD) and acrylic products could include:

Polyesters
Polyethers
Polycarbonates
Polyamides
Hydrocarbon building blocks
Renewable materials
Acrylic monomers
Vinylidenes

The more building blocks a resin, dispersion and additive manufacturer has at their disposal, the more versatility they can offer in developing unique chemistries to meet specific needs and demands.

In PUD product lines, polyol chemistries typically comprise more than 50% of a urethane, making them the most important factor of how the PUD will perform in certain applications. Waterborne polyurethanes are polymers containing both urethane and urea linkages. They are formed by a step growth/addition polymerization process that involves the reaction of poly-isocyanates with polyols and/or poly-amines. In a urethane, the hard segments contribute to the overall strength and rigidity of the material and solvent and abrasion resistance, acting as physical crosslinks within the polymer structure. The soft segments contribute elongation, flexibility and impact resistance.

Stabilizing the urethane are anionic, cationic and nonionic materials. Cationic stabilizers are used for more unique applications, such as for anti-reflective and anti-microbial coatings. More specialized anionic stabilizers can be used for binder applications where pH tolerance is required, for breathable materials or for certain textile coatings with unique haptic properties.

Successfully Stacking the Building Blocks

Having a broad range of base chemistries is very important, but knowing how to use them is even more important. With extensive experience and knowledge comes the ability to modify components and combine them to exploit certain synergies that deliver a good balance of properties to satisfy specific customer needs.

Lubrizol has the expertise, application capability and the range of key ingredients (building blocks) to launch products for a wide variety of applications, from industrial and protective coatings to digital inks to textiles. Lubrizol is also nimble enough to modify formulations and even the polymers themselves to create innovative new acrylic emulsions, acrylic resins, acrylic-polyurethane hybrids and polyurethane dispersions for unique customer applications.

As an example of versatility through selection and combination, Lubrizol can make a hard polymer using building blocks to make a product for a wood coating application (hardness, protection, chemical resistance) while also using the same building blocks to create a urethane dispersion with completely opposite requirements for a textile application (soft, breathable, UV resistance).

Another example of this versatility is evident in developing PUDs with high renewable carbon content. By having bio-based or renewable feedstocks as a raw material option, Lubrizol has developed next generation oil-modified urethane (OMU) dispersions that have renewable carbon content above 50% and are NMP free and free of other harmful VOCs, while delivering exceptional performance.

Lubrizol has the key ingredients plus the capabilities and knowledge to combine, adapt and customize building blocks that can meet virtually any customer need. Contact us to learn more.

Meeting Many Formulation Needs with a Broad Range of Building Blocks