THE BUSINESS OF VISCOSITY BLOG

Editor’s Note: Our VP of Engineering & Technology Mike Bonner recently spoke at the 2018 Waterborne Symposium held in New Orleans, LA. His presentation went in-depth on the differences in atomization between spray guns and bell atomizers, shedding light on how paint finishers can further improve their applications. For those not in attendance, he’s also prepared his insights here for our blog as a series of posts. To view future posts in the series, check the Guns vs. Bells blog series page over the following weeks on Thursdays and Sundays.  Also, watch for the recording of this presentation to be put up on our YouTube channel shortly…

Editor’s Note: Our VP of Engineering & Technology Mike Bonner recently spoke at the 2018 Waterborne Symposium held in New Orleans, LA. His presentation went in-depth on the differences in atomization between spray guns and bell atomizers, shedding light on how paint finishers can further improve their applications.

For those not in attendance, he’s prepared his insights here for our blog as a series of posts. To view future posts in the series, check the Guns vs. Bells blog series page over the following weeks on Thursdays and Sundays.  The presentation was recorded and will be also available on our YouTube channel in the not-too-distant future.  Stay tuned for that announcement!

In our first Viscometer Series blog, we discussed the “what” and “why” of viscometers — what they are and why they’re useful. In this blog, we’ll be going over the “how” — that is, how six different types of viscometers work. This list is by no means exhaustive; there are other types of viscometers out there, but not all of them are useful for industrial processes.

If you’re in the coating, painting, or printing industry, you need to be monitoring viscosity. If you’re not monitoring it, you’ll eventually run into a whole host of otherwise preventable issues — issues that can seriously compromise the quality of your production.

As the saying goes, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

Are you still using solvent-based paint in your automotive paint process? Many coating manufacturers around the globe have already made the switch to waterborne paints. Wonder why?

You just hit the open road. You see the sunlight reflecting off the hood of your car. You press the pedal down and as your car accelerates, you think to yourself, “Thank you, viscosity, for making this all possible.”

As an auto manufacturer, there are few problems that are more frustrating than stopping the production process due to issues with paint and coating application. Seeing defects pop up in the vehicle’s finish are particularly discouraging because they can be prevented with the right solutions.

In the early days of automobile production, everything was “local” and “simple.” The raw materials required for the car, such as steel or rubber may have come from other destinations, but the actual processing of those materials, and the eventual assembly were all done in the same plant.

Now, we live in a much more globalized industry. A car that is ultimately sold to a customer in New York or Chicago is no longer built strictly in Detroit. Materials used in assembly can come from all corners of the world. And one vehicle may have components made by suppliers in Mexico, Canada, or even China, which are then shipped to the United States, where the vehicle will ultimately be built.

Different stages of the painting process for industrial work will focus on different priorities. When creating paint, chemistry is the primary focus, making sure the mixture is right and that the substances included will result in an attractive color and finish.

However, once the paint is ready to go, the single biggest factor that will determine the overall success of a paint job is the viscosity, often referenced as the “thickness” of a fluid in non-technical terms.

Viscosity has an enormous influence on the final look and function of a paint job, and it impacts the finished product in many different ways.

Industrial innovation and technological advances have produ­­ced some pretty rapid changes over the past 100 years.

We’ve gone from primitive tools like mechanical gears and steam engines to a booming digital age where automation streamlines manufacturing, and robots and software can perform repetitive tasks that might otherwise be susceptible to human error.

The automotive industry has seen no shortage of innovation throughout its history – and that includes the processes used to paint and coat vehicles.