Q: Will the addition of leveling agent have an impact on hardness?

Question:Leveling agent Will the addition have an impact on hardness?

Answer:Generally, acrylic leveling agents do not participate in cross-linking and migrate to the surface of the paint film during the film-forming process. Therefore, theoretically, they can reduce the hardness of the paint film, but their performance is not significant within the recommended dosage range. However, for some organic silicon products, due to the reduction of surface friction coefficient, hardness improvement can be observed during testing, especially when measured using pencil hardness method. Cross linked products depend on the specific type.

Because the molecular weight of leveling agents is generally small, and leveling agents must have a certain degree of insolubility with resins in order to float on the surface of the paint film and achieve the effect of reducing or balancing the surface tension of the paint film, thus achieving the leveling effect. After the paint film dries, many leveling agents will remain on the paint film. Sometimes, testing the hardness of the paint film is also testing the hardness of the leveling agent, so leveling agents still have a certain impact on the hardness of the paint film. If you want to solve this problem, you can try leveling agents containing reactive functional groups, which are generally expensive.