03.13.15
Dr. Mei Wen, Research Associate at Axalta Coating Systems presented her research at the 2015 CoatingsTech Conference, organized by the American Coatings Association (ACA) in Louisville, Kentucky on March 10th. This biennial conference features presentations from prominent industrial coatings experts. Dr. Wen’s presentation showcased a micro-hardness testing methodology developed by Axalta in collaboration with the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (IMC Prague).
Fast-drying coatings are desired for increasing productivity in both automotive manufacturing and aftermarket repairs. It’s often a challenge to understand changes in coatings properties during the drying and curing processes, but this understanding is critical for developing fast-drying coatings. Axalta and the IMC team developed the new micro-hardness testing methodology, based on instrumented indentation testing.
“With the micro-hardness testing methods, we can determine the hardness of a coating system at different stages of the drying and curing processes, and learn about its gradient as a function of depth into a coating layer,” explained Dr. Wen. “The hardness obtained is directly related to the coating system, particularly the curing, drying, network development, and glass transition temperature increase of clearcoats. This testing methodology was developed to allow us to quickly and easily evaluate productivity of various clearcoats on different basecoats, such as waterborne and solvent borne basecoats,” Dr. Wen added.
“Enhancing the productivity of our coating systems is a key technology focus for Axalta,” said Dr. Barry Snyder, Axalta Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. “Increased productivity is an important goal for our customers. Providing faster-curing coatings that can increase throughput at the assembly or repair facility, and that can result in more rapid vehicle delivery, is one way Axalta can help achieve that objective,” Dr. Snyder added.
Fast-drying coatings are desired for increasing productivity in both automotive manufacturing and aftermarket repairs. It’s often a challenge to understand changes in coatings properties during the drying and curing processes, but this understanding is critical for developing fast-drying coatings. Axalta and the IMC team developed the new micro-hardness testing methodology, based on instrumented indentation testing.
“With the micro-hardness testing methods, we can determine the hardness of a coating system at different stages of the drying and curing processes, and learn about its gradient as a function of depth into a coating layer,” explained Dr. Wen. “The hardness obtained is directly related to the coating system, particularly the curing, drying, network development, and glass transition temperature increase of clearcoats. This testing methodology was developed to allow us to quickly and easily evaluate productivity of various clearcoats on different basecoats, such as waterborne and solvent borne basecoats,” Dr. Wen added.
“Enhancing the productivity of our coating systems is a key technology focus for Axalta,” said Dr. Barry Snyder, Axalta Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. “Increased productivity is an important goal for our customers. Providing faster-curing coatings that can increase throughput at the assembly or repair facility, and that can result in more rapid vehicle delivery, is one way Axalta can help achieve that objective,” Dr. Snyder added.