Bringing greater individuality to the automotive industry

Visually attractive, optimally protected, and outstanding to the touch – these are essential demands on automotive OEM coatings. And yet, in recent years, this performance profile has moved more and more towards individualisation, such as with two-coloured applications, for example. Long gone are the days when the only decision needed when buying a vehicle was between silver, black or white – individuality is now trumps.

But in other branches of industry too, ways and means are being sought to improve not only recoatability, but also the adhesion of stickers, printing inks or adhesives on the coating layer, especially where optimum surface slip is also required.

It is here that BYK has the ideal additive solution in the shape of its new silicone and polyether-modified acrylate BYK-3568. The advantages are particularly evident in clearcoats and topcoats, for which good recoatability or adhesion of the next coating layer is necessary. And it improves the substrate wetting as a moderately active silicone does, while at the same time increasing not only the coating’s surface energy but also its surface slip in a single step.

For formulators of clearcoats and topcoats who, for decades, have been using silicone-based additives, the technology behind BYK-3568 opens up entirely new opportunities in the fields of recoatability and adhesion, since it offers several effects with only a single additive.