In late 2017, Saint Clair Systems, Inc., Carlisle Fluid Technologies and BYK Gardner formed a collaboration to definitively prove how film build, atomization and coating viscosity (as determined by temperature) interact in the formation of orange peel in highly critical painted surfaces as judged by wave-scan balance and distinctness of image (DOI).
In the first installment of this series, in the May 2018 issue of PCI, we reviewed the reasons behind doing this testing, the testing process and the creation of the panels from which the data was obtained. In this installment, with the DOE panel sets completed, we review the measurement of the orange peel on the panels, the analysis of that data, the conclusions that can be drawn, and the follow-up testing indicated by that analysis.