SMI: Specialty Coatings

Specialty Minerals Products for Specialty Coatings

The “specialty coatings” group is a catch-all containing a wide variety of products used in applications which fall outside those covered by architectural paints or industrial OEM (original equipment manufacture) finishes. The technologies for some specialty coatings are closely related to those for industrial or architectural coatings. A good example is the relationship between OEM automotive coatings and automotive refinish paints, with the latter considered a specialty coating.

This category also includes road marking or traffic paints, maintenance coatings for bridges and storage tanks, other metal-protective uses, marine coatings, roof coatings, and aerosol paints. These finishes often mimic the properties and performance of OEM coatings without the luxury of being applied in the controlled environments from which OEM coatings benefit. Specialty coatings are primarily protective coatings rather than appearance coatings. They first perform the appointed task and then look good doing it.

Minerals in Specialty Coatings
Because many specialty applications require very high performance, ingredients are chosen primarily for their functionality and effectiveness with cost a secondary factor. Metal-protective maintenance coatings can effectively employ talc’s barrier properties.

However, there are other cases, such as traffic coatings, that must meet minimum performance standards within tight cost parameters. In road marking paints, which make heavy use of fillers, the ability to reduce overall formulation cost becomes paramount in the choice of one extender pigment over another. Ground calcium carbonate (GCC)–a more economical mineral–is generally employed. In some very specialized coatings, such as aerosols or mirror coatings, there may be just one extender system that truly complements the particular set of other raw materials used in the formulation. Often, in dealing with these more exotic systems, only in-house knowledge and experience can provide the best overall solution.

Specialty Minerals Products for Specialty Coatings
Formulators of marine, maintenance, traffic, and other specialty coating products will find value in one or more Specialty Minerals Inc. filler and extender pigments. These include talcs, white barites or barytes, ground calcium carbonates, and precipitated calcium carbonates. Click on one of these mineral product types to read more about their use in paints and coatings:

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