Timeless Brilliance
Deep red or fluorescent orange: bright facade colors are in fashion. To ensure they lose none of their radiance even after many years, WACKER has developed a new binder: PRIMIS ® AF 1000.
There are fundamentally two types of pigments available for coloring architectural paints. Both are available in natural and artificial versions, and each has its specific pros and cons.
Heroes of Resistance: Inorganic Pigments
Most inorganic pigments are heat and light resistant and do not chemically react with oxygen in the air. That is why they are used for painting on porcelain. However, they are only available in a limited range of colors. In the red range, only a few, rather subdued, shades are available. The best known natural inorganic pigments include chalk, ocher, umber and graphite. Traces of these pigments have survived since prehistoric times.
A Variety of Hues: Organic Pigments
Organic pigments are generally much more chemically complex. This allows a wide range of shades to be obtained, including many with high brilliance and color intensity. Though they are more susceptible to light, oxygen and heat. In their natural form, organic pigments are obtained from plants and animals. Familiar examples of colorants and the pigments obtained from them are carmine (extracted from cochineal bugs), sepia (from the ink of the cuttlefish) and indigo (from the leaves of the indigo bush). Artificial indigo is still used to dye most jeans.
PRIMIS ® AF 1000 Bonds
Architectural paints are particularly exposed to UV light, temperature changes and weather and in the past have therefore usually been colored with the more resistant inorganic pigments. The new PRIMIS ® AF 1000 dispersions make paints so highly light resistant that even organic pigments retain their radiance over years. A wider range of colors is thus possible.
PRIMIS ® AF 1000 is subjected to extensive testing both in the WACKER labs and at WACKER’s outdoor weathering station.
The Best of Both Worlds: PRIMIS ® AF 1000
PRIMIS ® AF 1000 contains an inorganic core in an acrylate-based aqueous polymer dispersion. This combination leads to a range of advantages
For some years, the construction industry has been combining organic and inorganic components in binders. This is often performed by mixing mineral particles directly with an organic dispersion. But there are problems: The particles can clump together, which affects shelf life, and phase separation can occur during film formation, leading to an irregular, heterogeneous film. This inhomogeneity in turn destabilizes the bond and increases the risk of cracking.
In PRIMIS ® AF 1000, WACKER’s new mineralized binder, mineral and organic components are chemically bonded together - this prevents both clumping and phase separation. The dispersion shows excellent film formation - even at low outdoor temperatures - and leads to an elastic polymer surface, which exhibits extremely high blocking resistance. The result is stable, homogeneous films.
Dirt pick-up is an ongoing challenge for architectural paints, and largely determines whether the building has a pleasing appearance, or not. Facades that permanently look like new keep their attraction for us for much longer. PRIMIS ® AF 1000 has been designed to significantly reduce dirt pick-up compared to other binders.
Pigments are added to exterior paints and exterior plasters to provide the facades of residential and other buildings with powerful, brilliant colors. Although organic pigments are renowned for providing a wide range of hues, they are not particularly stable, especially when subjected to UV radiation. They fade and become increasingly bleached out over time due to sun exposure and weathering. Inorganic pigments on the other hand better withstand the elements, but do not offer the same range of hues and shades.
The new PRIMIS ® AF 1000 binder increases the stability of organic pigments in color formulations. This is because mineralization protects organic pigments more effectively against UV radiation – and pigments consequently lose their brilliance and intensity much more slowly, so that outdoor paints can retain their original color much longer.
Snail trails are vertical stripes on the outer wall that emerge especially after heavy rain or dew. They can occur when water-soluble compounds, such as emulsifiers are leached out of the paint and dry on the surface. PRIMIS ® AF 1000 reduces these snail trails.
Are you interested in other WACKER solutions for architectural paints?
WACKER’s range of products based on silicone or organic chemistry, or a combination of the two is ideal for architectural paints.
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