Additives are critical to a coating’s composition. Common additives include abrasion resistance improvers, defoamers, corrosion inhibitors, matting agents, preservatives, photoinitiators, surfactants, rheology modifiers, waxes, thickeners, UV absorbers, and many more. While they compose a very small percentage of a formulation — usually less than 2% of the final formula — additives have a significant impact on a coating’s production, in-can stability, application and final film properties. And R&D efforts to develop new additives are constant.

This month PCI has launched our online Additives Directory, which features product categories, suppliers and distributors of these essential coating ingredients. This issue of our eMagazine features some highlights of the Directory, including logos of some of the biggest suppliers and distributors, as well as definitions of a few of the key additives that these companies supply. These logos and definitions link directly to listings in our online Directory, so be sure to click on them to learn more.

The additives theme carries throughout this issue with several feature articles. I’m excited to introduce a new article series called “Formulating with Mike,” authored by Mike Praw, Senior Applications Scientist, Paints, Coatings and Inks, at Indorama Ventures: Integrated Oxides and Derivatives. Mike kicks things off in this issue with Part 1 of a four-part series on additives — focusing this month on rheology modifiers and suspension agents. Part 2 in the series will cover foam-control agents — look for that in our July issue. Subsequent articles will discuss surface tension modifiers, and surfactants and pigment dispersants. In addition to additives, Mike plans to write future articles on solvents, resins, pigments, and other coatings raw materials. We look forward to our partnership with him.

I recently searched for “additives” on our website, which resulted in 2,563 technical articles, news items, product announcements, events and webinars that we have posted over the last 20 years on these vital ingredients. The world of coatings additives is always advancing, and is an area coatings companies need to be current on if they want their formulations to have the latest technology available to solve challenges and meet customer requirements.