John A. Gilbert, Behr Process Corporation, Santa Ana, CA
The architectural coatings industry has undergone great change over the last ten years. Today’s coatings have a much different raw material
base, a different environmental profile
and different properties. These changes
have been brought about through a variety of influencers including synthesis
chemists, paint formulators, end users,
and environmental regulators. This paper examines some of the changes that
have happened in the last decade as well
as some trends coming in the near future.
Waterborne vs. Oil-Based/
Solvent-Based
One cannot comment on changes in architectural coatings without first addressing the transition from oil/solvent-based
paint to waterborne paint.
As I began work on this paper, the 9th
Edition of the ACA’s Industry Market
Analysis was published by the ACA and
Chemquest.1 In their analysis of the overall U.S. architectural coatings market,
they reported that in 2014 solvent-based
coatings made up 108 million gallons, or
15 percent, of a 720 million gallon market (Figure 1).
By contrast, in 2001, solvent-based
coatings made up 114 million gallons, or
23 percent of a 493 million gallon mar-
ket. Therefore, one can conclude that
although the total volume of solvent-
based paint has only slightly decreased, it
is now a smaller percentage of a larger
market. In fact, as discussed below, there
are certain U.S. markets in which it is
very difficult to use some types of sol-
vent-based paints due to environmental
regulation. Although the reduction in
market share of solvent-based coatings
has continued for several decades, there
are certain regional markets and special-
ized applications which favor the use of
solvent-based materials. For the average
end user, waterborne paints offer the con-
venience of a safe, low-odor product and
easy cleanup with soap and water.
VOC Content
The first latex-based, waterborne coatings were much higher in VOC (volatile
organic compound) content than those
on the market today. Even as recently as
2006, it was common to formulate waterborne architectural coatings at 250 g/L
VOC. Many of the resins for such coatings required the use of solvents in order
to coalesce the latex particles into a continuous film. As regulations have driven
VOC values downward, resins have been
designed which require little or no solvent
in order to form a film. In addition, zero-VOC coalescents have been developed.
Resin and paint developers have been
tasked with finding ways to maintain a
low minimum film formation temperature
(MFFT) while at the same time maintaining the hardness of the dried film. This is
challenging because the low MFFT resins
tend to have lower glass transition temperatures and the zero-VOC coalescents
stay in the dried film. In fact, I see this as
one of the biggest technical challenges in
waterborne architectural coatings today:
how to make paint at zero VOC that will
coalesce appropriately at room temperature and yet dry to a hard, durable finish.
This problem becomes particularly challenging at higher gloss levels because the
Recent Trends
in Architectural Coatings
Figure 1: Annual Volume of Solvent-based vs. Waterborne Architectural Coatings in the United States,
2001 vs. 2014.
