High-solids automotive coatings

Manufacturers of automotive repair finishes are tending to reduce more and more the level of volatile organic compounds in their paints in order to comply with increasingly strict environmental legislation After a review of the main parameters allowing a viscosity reduction in acrylic resins in general, this paper describes the use of a reactive intermediate called CARDURA E10 (a trade mark of the Royal Dutch group of companies) which is able to reduce the solution viscosity of different resins and, hence, allows to increase the solids content of automotive paints while improving the final coating properties. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.