Paint
Paint
backMost people don’t think too much about the paint industry. Paint is more than just a color, it is a liquid material that dries to a beautiful finish. It takes a complex chemical process to turn this liquid into a solid. And many don’t have an understanding of what paint is made of and the process that is used to generate it.
The Ingredients in Paint
There are four main components in paint, they are resin, additives, solvent, and pigment. The resin is the binder that holds all the pigments together. It allows the product to adhere to surfaces.
Additives are used to enhance the properties of the substance. Without additives, the drying time would not be as fast as it is.
Solvents act as a carrier that helps bind the pigments and resin together. These agents can be organic, or the manufacturer can use plain water.
Lastly, pigments are used to give paint its color and sheen. They are placed into two groups, prime and extender. The prime pigments will include colors like white, green oxide, yellow and red. In the other group of extenders, it includes calcium carbonate, talc, mica, and barytes to name a few.
The Manufacturing of paint
In large calibrated vats, the ingredients are measured and weighed on scales. Pigments are added and are broken down by the resin and additives that keep them from sticking together, which is called dispersion.
Mixers are used to combine and disperse the pigments
In the let-down stage, the resin, solvent, and additives are combined in a large vat. The mill-base is stirred in during this phase. Any final additions are added during this stage, if necessary.
When the batch is complete, it can be canned.
Canning Process
Most typical paints are stored in cans or large buckets. The end-of-line operation of these products tends to be straight forward as the heavy cans or buckets are stable and not flimsy.
These products tend to forego any secondary packaging and are palletized directly using conventional or robotic palletizers.
