Skip to content Skip to sidebar Skip to footer

Lacquer Retarder, Solvent to Slower the Lacquer Drying

Lacquer retarder is the additive to retard or slow the drying process of lacquer. Lacquer retarder is usually already mixed in the lacquer thinner to make a good flow and smooth film. But in the finishing process, you may still need to add some lacquer retarder in the application. In certain conditions, when the drying time of lacquer is considered too fast or when slower drying is required, you can add lacquer retarder. The addition of lacquer rretareder is one of the common actions to solve some finishing problems in the production.

Here are some finishing problems that can be alleviated by the lacquer retarde
r.

  • Blushing.
Blushing is the formation of fog or a rainbow in the film coating. It is caused by the water vapor that is trapped in the coating film during the film forming. Blushing happens when you do a clear coating application in the humid air, for example, in the morning, at night, or on rainy days, especially in certain areas that have high humidity.
If there is a blushing problem, then you can add some lacquer retarder into the top coat mixture to slow down the drying process. The slow drying process will allow water vapor trapped in the coating film to release and come out from the film layer.

  • The rough surface of the film layers.
The surface layer of a finishing film may be rough due to the dust spray that is attached to the film surface during the spray applications. The dust spray problem occurs when the surface of the film in some areas is dry while the spray process is taking place. The dust from the spraying process is attached to the dry surface and makes the rough surface. This dust spray problem usually occurs at the big product that has a large surface area, such as a big cupboard, table, or cabinet, when the spray application takes a long time. The surface that was sprayed for the first time could be already dry when the spray process is still going on. The dust spray sticks at the dry film and makes a rough film surface.
You can add some lacquer retarder to let the lacquer layer be wet longer. The wet coating layer will accept the dust spray to be mixed and solved with the lacquer. There will be no dust spray, and the smooth film surface is resulted.

  • Streaking finish
Streaking is the lines as a "zebra looked" in the finishing layer. The streaking at the top coat could be caused by the top coat layer is drying too fast. The drying time of lacquer cannot be too fast to let every layer of the film coating from each stroke to solve and mixed with its previous stroke.
We can add the lacquer retarder to solve the streaking problem that is caused by too fast drying. The addition of retarder in the top coat will slow down the drying time of the top coat layer, thus allowing each stroke spray to fuse and be well mixed.

How to make lacquer retarder?

 
Lacquer retarder is made of solvent
s that have high solubility to the lacquer but have a slow evaporation time. Butyl acetate, butyl cellusolve, butyl acetate, and p.m. methyl acetate are a few of the solvents that are frequently used for lacquer retareder. The other solvent for retarder is M.A.K. (methyl Amyl Keton); it is a solvent from the ketone group that has strong solubility to paint with slow evaporation rate. But actually the solevent for each coating is determined by the ingredient of the coating, which may vary for each type and brand. The retarder of each paint may be different from one brand to the other.
Although it can help a lot, too much retarder is not recommended. The addition of lacquer retarder should be undertaken only in special cases; in the normal condition, the addition of lacquer retarder should be avoided. Too much lacquer retarder is wasting and even could cause finishing problems.

Some problems that could be generated by too much retarder. 
  • Longer drying time.
The addition of retarder will slow down the drying process, and it will make the overall finishing process slower. It could be a disadvantage in the big-volume finishing industries that do finishing jobs in large volumes. The slow drying process also raises the risk of getting the soft finishing layer problems.
  • Rough finish film.
Long drying time also increases the risk of a rough film surface as a result of the dust that sticks at the wet surface. The longer wet surface exposed will lead to more dust attached. This condition will raise the rough problem for the rough finish, especially when the finishing and drying room is not quite clean and free of dust.
  • Gloss problem.
The addition of lacquer retarders can also lead to a higher gloss finish than it should be. The gloss in the top coat is adjusted by adding the matting agent in the top coat mixed. The matting agent is particles that will refract light that comes to the surface to make a low-gloss finish film. See our article: matting agent in the top coat.
To work optimally, the matting agent should stay on the top surface of the film coating. The matting agent at the bottom layer does not work to refract the light and affect the film gloss. Too much lacquer retarder can result in too long drying time and let the matting agent particles settle at the bottom of the layer film, and the result is the high gloss finishing film.

2 comments for "Lacquer Retarder, Solvent to Slower the Lacquer Drying"

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes it is.
      Too much addition of lacquer retarder could make the mating agent to set at the bottom part of th film coating. And it will make the high gloss finish.

      Thanks for visiting our web site.

      Delete