Anti-foam products allow controlling the presence of unwanted foam in different processes, including the manufacture and application of paints.
One of the most critical foaming steps in paints is the grinding phase. During the grinding of paints, equipment that generates high-shear forces is used in order to obtain a homogeneous distribution of the particle size of the fillers. Although the equipment is usually designed to reduce foaming, some entrapped air is unavoidable. Another phase where foam tends to cause deviations in the production system is during packaging, where the decrease in the density of the paint, meaning the relationship between its volume and its weight, causes that the weight specifications cannot be reached due to excessive air content. During the application of paints, high-shear applicators such as spray guns or foam rollers promote the incorporation of entrapped air in the paint that can cause surface defects in the coating, such as craters, pinholes, or reduced gloss.