Boys and girls its time for me to give a basic explanation of materials used in the automotive refinishing industry. I am doing this so that people will understand the differences between base coat/clear coat and single stage paint systems.
Well here we go, The basic difference in the 2 systems is pretty simple. To put it in layman's terms... A single stage paint has a gloss in the paint, a base coat system needs a clear coat applied over it to provide gloss. Pretty simple huh? well now we will get a little more technical. Lets start with single stage paints. There are several different single stage systems. They range from a synthetic alkyd resin to acrylic, acrylic urethane, polyurethane, and so on. Basically they are manipulated forms of plastics resins. They all have their place in the industry, and here are a few basic examples. Trailers, Industrial equipment, and farm equipment are usually sprayed with a synthetic enamel. Not much gloss retention. What that means is the color will get chalky and fade.The color doesn't last as long as higher grades of paint such as urethane's.
Now we move into the standard acrylic enamel paint job. Basically if you have your car painted at MAACO or Earl Scheib and go tone of their basic paint jobs, you got an acrylic enamel paint job. Holds gloss much better than a synthetic but the color will fade sooner than that of a urethane. The price is usually much cheaper than that of a urethane.
Now on to urethane's, Acrylic urethane's are very good single stage systems. They are usually used in production shops that paint a large amount of cars in a day. They are also very popular in the fleet side of the industry, semi trucks, delivery trucks, etc. They are good quality paints that last a very long time! Some systems are better than others, but we will get into that later. Polyurethanes are usually considered the "cream of the crop" in the realm of single stage. there is a little controversy over which line is more durable and easier to work with, and everyone has their own opinion. Again, we will discuss this later. So what are the most common uses for polyurethane finishes? Well the applications vary,finishes used in they range from semi trucks to aircraft. In fact polyurethane finishes are the most common systems used in aircraft finishing and refinishing.
These are the basic single stage systems and their properties and applications. There are also modified polymer finishes and lacquers but these are coatings that are rarely used and you would just be bored hearing about them. I hope this gives you all a basic overview of single stage coatings. I think I will let you digest all of this mumbo jumbo and I will explain the principals and applications of base coat/ clear coat systems tomorrow night!
email me if you have any questions at howard@triggermanairbrush.com and I will be happy to answer what questions I can.
Peace people,
H
No comments:
Post a Comment