Tuesday Tech Tip #9

Reducer Choice & Temperature

Reducers have several important jobs in a wet paint film.

• Act as a vehicle for the paint, reducing viscosity, allowing the paint to be atomized and travel from the gun to the substrate.
• Pull the binder down to allow for maximum adhesion to the substrate.
• Allow the wet paint to “flow and level” on the substrate to provide the desired surface finish.

Once these key jobs are done all solvents must then evaporate from the paint coating.

Temperature

Temperature lays a huge part in the selection of the correct “speed” of reducer to be added to your paint.

The warmer or hotter the ambient air temp during painting, the faster the solvent will evaporate.

This can negatively impact the performance of the paint.

Many days during the heat of summer we can have little or no control over the heat we have to spray in. Therefore in conditions like this it is desirable to move to a “slower” reducer speed.

Note: Job size also influences reducer selection, the larger the job in warmer conditions the slower the reducer speed needs to be.

Using a reducer which is too fast for the temperature conditions and or job size can/will ultimately result in issues such as (but not limited to) Mottle (in basecoats), Orange Peel (excessive), and Adhesion (reduced).

Job Size & Temperature - Reducer Selection Guide

Using “Fast Reducer” in all jobs all the time will ultimately lead to “re-work” $$.

This tip was originally written for DBNZ Coatings and has been re-posted with permission.

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