Metallic paint

The metal effect paint, even metallic paint or metallisé refers paints, which have a shiny metallic effect. Metallics came the first time in the 1960s, but sit down later in the widespread use by.

Effect

The effect produced by the use of metallic pigments. These are platelet-shaped special, consisting of metallic pigments contained in the lacquer formulation. The most important representatives are aluminum and brass. Another form of effect coatings is the interference coat ( colloquially flip -flop paint), which depending on the angle shows different shades of color (color flop). This effect is obtained by using interference pigments. Pearl effect paints are produced by the addition of pearlescent pigments. These produce a particularly strong lightness flop, so a strong angle-dependent difference in brightness. This effect paint variants can not be strictly defined to each other, since the use of different types on the same coating effect pigment is common.

Application

Metallic paints are usually two-layer coatings. They consist of a layer of varnish that contains the effect and color pigments, and a subsequently applied the second layer, the clearcoat. Kamen at the coloring layer earlier in the general solvent-based paints are used, there is this in modern vehicles almost entirely of water-based paints ( acrylic paints). When clearcoat usually solvent-based systems are used.

For use in the automotive sector (see car paint ) the name of two-layer paint is not strictly correct, as paint can exist for the automotive OEM finishing of four layers, specifically from a primer ( often referred to as cathodic dip painting, short KTL, running), primer, basecoat and clearcoat. The term two-layer paint refers to the combination of base coat and clear coat, which is also common in non-automotive applications.

Costs

An often -heard rumor is that metallic paints have a higher production cost than existing only one layer Uni- paints and therefore are subject to surcharge Special features for the most car manufacturers. In fact, most car manufacturers are all colors, regardless of the use of effect pigments, applied in a multilayer process. This is due to the mediated through the clear coat surface properties, such as gloss, leveling and UV protection for the underlying layers.