The industrial coatings industry makes use of both the natural and synthetic waxes. Inks and toner alike contain wax additives to benefit from specific properties of ink wax, including slip resistance, dispersion and resistance to solvents, grease, or water.
At Teff-Line, we understand the importance of industrial coatings, which is why we’re capable of offering a variety of protective coatings with a number of different properties to suit your application!
Industrial coating pigments are classified into two primary categories: liquid and powder. They can be formulated using different chemistries based on oil solvent, energy curable, or water. The raw materials used in producing the coatings are categorized into the following classifications:
- Additives – These are compounds that modify or control certain properties of the coat’s pigment. They are added in small amounts but can influence a lot of chemical characteristics such as drying, film formation, viscosity, and more!
- Vehicles – Also known as varnishes, they carry the pigment to substrates during coating. They usually consist or resin binders and plasticizer, and can be viscous or free flow gelled.
- Colourants – Colourants refer to colour dyes and pigments. Dyes are dissolved in the vehicle while pigments are insoluble and require dispersion.
Certain industrial coating types use some additives while others use ink wax of some type. Waxes offer great physical attributes including scuff resistance, solvent, or grease resistance and influence the coefficient of friction to control slip resistance. Usually, they are used at less than 5%, but some emulsions or dispersion additives can have a much higher percentage of wax. They are supplied in different types and typically classified as follows:
- Polyethylene Wax – They have a molecular weight ranging from 500 to 6000 in either low or high density. This ink wax is used in all major types of ink and is available as dry, oil or micronized powder forms.
- Paraffin Wax – They offer some excellent moisture barrier qualities. However, they have to be used carefully for coating or overprinting as they can form a low energy surface after drying.
- FT Wax – Flexo and gravure ink types are limited since their lower fractions can be soluble and becomes too hot to manufacture.
We at Teff-Line provide an extensive range of industrial coatings which can solve any formulation issues related to slip and abrasion resistance, weather resistance, water resistance, and black heel mark resistance. We offer micronized coating powders of varying polymers such as polyethylene and polypropylene, PTFE, Teflon, Carnauba, Amide and Nylon. All of which when added to a formulation can enhance performance of your industrial coatings!