Marine and protective coatings typically have very high requirements in terms of sag stability. The systems are typically spray applied in high layer thicknesses of around 1,000 µm (or even more) in one pass. This high demand of the systems limits the selection of suitable rheology modifiers.
Organic thixotropes provide the properties to fulfil this specific need. However, especially older classes of this technology have complex requirements in terms of incorporation and activation. Elevated temperatures at a specified range, combined with high shear for a defined period of time, in accordance with the system that can be based on a manifold of binder chemistries and various solvent compositions, are required to achieve optimum performance (Figure 1).