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 retarder.
- Blushing.
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.
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
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 solvents 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.
Some problems that could be generated by too much retarder.
- Longer drying time.
- Rough finish film.
- Gloss problem.
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.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteYes it is.
DeleteToo 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.
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