Coatings Reformulation: Mixing with a Purpose
New and improved coatings products enter the market with exciting promises. One coating may have scrub resistance lasting 25,000 scrub cycles, another may boast of a 50-year warranty with one-coat coverage, and yet another may have glass spheres for added thermal value.
It is only natural to ask "What makes these coating so unique?" The first step is usually deformulation, or reverse engineering. Deformulation uses instrumental techniques with extraction methods to identify and quantitate a coating's ingredients. This analysis provides a list of the major and minor components and their relative percentages, but not always the entire formula. Since most coatings are a complex mixture of components, a reformulation is usually needed in order to get a working recipe.
A client once asked, "Why do you need to reformulate the product when you already did the deformulation? I have the list of ingredients, what more do I need?" The answer is that a deformulation won't tell you how to put the components back together.
It's like chocolate chip cookies. Everyone knows how to make them, but what if you were given the ingredients and no cookbook recipe? You would have to start mixing things together, trying different methods until you perfect the Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe.
Unlike cookies, which may take a few trials and have only a few ingredients, coatings can have as many as 25 components. Sometimes a deformulation will only provide a general description. For example, a component may be identified as silica, yet a client will need to know the type of silica, when to mix it in, and if it is really necessary to the formulation's success.
An understanding of the coating's end-use is crucial to reformulation. Each coating is formulated to achieve a set of properties for a specific purpose. Once a list of ingredients is determined, a formulator must decide upon the top five coating properties. The next step is to set up a Design of Experiments (DOE) which will provide a minimum of 4 to 6 formulations.
The coating formulas from the DOE are tested for the top desired properties. After the initial formulas are tested, additional sets of coating formulas may be needed. Ingredients may have to be substituted, percentages adjusted, and sometimes the formula needs to be completely reworked.
A final or best-fit coating formula will still require minor adjustments, and some give and take may be needed. At times an additional property that is better than the original goal is gained. Other times, one property may be achieved, but at the expense of another.
An experienced formulator can usually create a credible match of the original product with reformulation. The key to reformulation is the order of addition and the understanding of how components mix together to make a coating. This process can help companies keep up with a changing market, gain competitive intelligence and develop better coating products.
