A car body freshly topcoated in a spray booth
Clear orange peel appears the moment the topcoat is sprayed, and with the clearcoat layer on top it hazes; under the lights the defect is plain to see. The owner only has to walk around the car once to find it, and this kind of defect cannot be polished out — the only route is a respray, which doubles the labour hours for a single panel and adds heavily to the cost.
Chemi Tech makes leveling agents for topcoat systems such as automotive coatings and industrial coatings, drawn from the leveling agent KMP-4045 series. How a grade is matched depends on the solvent system of the coating, the spray viscosity and the flash-off time. KMP-4045 is a polyether siloxane copolymer: high performance with high compatibility, it works in waterborne, radiation curing and solventborne systems alike, and its recoatability is good, so the coats hold together on a respray touch-up. Chemi Tech runs a leveling comparison against the coating system and the application process and recommends the leveling agent that fits.
Advantages of Chemi Tech Leveling Agents
Chemi Tech leveling agent KMP-4045 series cuts surface tension efficiently, so the topcoat spreads properly before the surface dries and orange peel drops a grade. Compatibility is high as well: no clouding in a clearcoat, no haze on a pigmented coat, and the clarity of the clearcoat layer holds. The systems it covers are broad, too — one grade serves all three lines, waterborne, radiation curing and solventborne, so changing system does not mean changing the auxiliary. Recoatability is good as well, so the coats hold together on a respray touch-up with no interface line left. And it is high performance: a small proportion against coating weight is enough to act, so the overall cost stays controllable.
Industry Pain Points and Solutions
Orange peel on a topcoat is usually the leveling window being caught by the flash-off time. What worries people most is a respray, where the material and the labour hours for one panel all start over.
Looking only at gloss and not at haze is the first difficulty encountered. The orange peel is pressed down and the clearcoat layer hazes anyway, so distinctness of image still will not pass. Chemi Tech verifies leveling and compatibility as one pair, checking first whether the clarity of the clearcoat has held.
Another hidden problem is that changing system means changing the auxiliary with it. With a waterborne line and a solventborne line both running, several leveling agents sit in the store, and a wrong pick by the materials handler is a quality problem on the spot. Chemi Tech assesses versatility by system and settles on a product such as KMP-4045 that serves all three lines, which simplifies the inventory and cuts out the human error at the same time.
A visible interface on a respray is a major pain point too. Local rework easily leaves a mismatch between the new and the old film, and the interface shows. Chemi Tech runs an intercoat comparison against recoatability and pins down an addition level that holds both leveling and adhesion, breaking the habit of covering the interface by polishing.
Typical Conditions and Verification
Customer: an automotive parts coating enterprise in Guangdong, applying it to the topcoat line for bumpers.
The bumper topcoat at this plant carried heavy orange peel and the clearcoat layer hazed, so the distinctness of image required by the OEM could not be met and the respray rate stayed high. Chemi Tech leveling agent gave a targeted solution: against the coating system and the flash-off time, grade KMP-4046 was used; the addition level was set in steps against spray viscosity, and the several leveling agents used across the old and the new systems were consolidated into a single grade. After the change the orange peel rating of the film moved up a grade, the clearcoat layer came out clear, and the respray rate fell markedly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will the leveling agent added to a clearcoat pull the clarity down?
It will: a leveling agent with insufficient compatibility clouds in the clearcoat, and the clearcoat layer is left under a veil of haze. The KMP-4045 Chemi Tech supplies to automotive coating plants has been compared for compatibility against clearcoat systems, and at normal addition levels there is no clouding and no haze. The specific addition level depends on your coating system — Chemi Tech will run the comparison and then give the fitting recommendation.