This is the second in a series of four articles on additives. Rheology modifiers and suspension agents were covered in Part 1, which published in our May 2021 issue. Part 2 covers foam control agents.
Additives are used in small quantities and usually have the highest unit cost of coatings raw materials. They are used to facilitate production or to improve certain properties of the wet coating or the final film. They are absolutely necessary in paint; however, more is not better. In fact, with many additives higher levels can hurt performance.