Paint Manufacturing &

Environmental Effects of
Paints
Saad Aslam
 Contents

• Paint Introduction
• Why we need Paints?
• Components of Paints
• Variety of Paints
• Paint Industry
• Health & Safety of consumer
• Environmental Impacts of Paint
• Safer Paints
 Paint Introduction
• Paint is any liquid,
liquefiable, or mastic
composition which after
application to a substrate
in a thin layer is converted
to an opaque solid film. It
is most commonly used to
add color and/or texture to
objects.
Why we need Paints?
 Basic components of Paints
The four main constituents of an paint
coating are:
1.Pigment
2.Binder (resin)
3.Thinners and solvents
4.Fillers
 Pigment
• An inorganic substance, such as titanium
dioxide, chrome pigment, earths, lead
pigments, zinc pigments.
• A pure, insoluble organic dye known as a
toner.
• An organic dye precipitated on an
inorganic carrier such as aluminum
hydroxide, barium sulfate or clay.
 Pigments(cont.)
• Function:
The function of pigments and fillers is
to provide simply a colored surface,
pleasing for its aesthetic appeal. The
solid particles in paint reflect light rays,
and thus help to prolong the life of the
paints, and protect metals from
corrosion.
 Binders (Resins)
• Some of the binders are epoxy, vinyl,
polyurethane, acrylic, etc.
• Functions:
binds the ingredients (holds everything
together), forms the film; also known as
the non-volatile vehicle; paint coatings
are often named after the resin.
 Thinners and solvents
• Such as petroleum ether, toluene, xylene.
• Function:
It is the volatile part of the vehicle. Its
function is to dissolve the binders,
adjust the paint viscosity, and give
homogeneous, regular, and uniform
thickness on the coated surface.
 Fillers
• such as clay, talc, gypsum, and calcium
carbonate.
• Function:
Pigment extender, or fillers, reduce the
paint cost and control the rheorological
properties (viscosity) of paints.
 Other additives
• Other additives are
1. Driers
2. Anti skinning agents
3. Anti settling agents
4. Plasticizers
5. Dispersants
 Driers
• Such as cobalt, lead, zinc, zirconium,
manganese, calcium, barium.
• Function:
To accelerate the drying of the paints.
 Anti skinning agents
• Function:
It is added to the paints (unsaturated),
to prevent the solidification of paints
surface during storage.
 Anti settling agents
• Function:
To improve the dispersion efficiency of
the pigments into the vehicle, to
prevent the settling of pigments during
storage.
 Plasticizers
• These materials are special types of oils,
phthalate esters or chlorinated paraffins.
• Function:
To improve the elasticity of paint
films, and to minimize the paint films
tendency for cracking.
 Dispersants
• Wetting agents, fire retarding, anti-floating,
antifoaming,… etc.
• Function:
To give the paint specific property for
specific purpose or application.
 Variety of Paints
Paints have been divided into:
1. Solvent-based paints
2. Water-based paints
3. Varnishes; clear coatings.
4. Printing inks.
 Solvent Based Paints
• solvent-based paints, sometimes referred
to as "oil-based" or "alkyd" paints
• Contain a significantly higher level of
organic solvents than water-based paints
• These solvents are responsible for the
strong odour noticeable in buildings that
have been freshly painted
• They are also potentially hazardous for
both human health and for the
environment.
 Water-based Paints
• Water paints are a type of oil paint specially
manufactured so that they can be thinned with water
instead of turpentine.
• Water based paints can be cleaned easily with water.
• They are used in much the same way as oil paints
except that they can be easily removed from brushes
and palettes while wet.
• Most modern emulsion paints are water based. They
contain added vinyl or resins to make them more
hard wearing.
• Today, water-based paints dominate and account for
roughly 80% of paints sold in the residential market.
 Varnishes; clear coatings.
• Varnish is a transparent, hard, protective finish or
film primarily used in wood finishing but also for
other materials.
• Varnish is traditionally a combination of a drying
oil, a resin, and a thinner or solvent.
• Varnish finishes are usually glossy and semi-gloss
sheens by the addition of "flatting" agents.
 Varnishes; clear coatings.
• Varnish has little or no colour, is
transparent, and has no added
pigment, as opposed to paints or
wood stains.
• Varnishes are also applied over
wood stains as a final step to
achieve a film for gloss and
protection.
• Nail polish is also included in
varnishes
 Printing inks
• Printing Ink is used in ink
cartridges of printers
• Printing is usually done using four
different colours of ink: cyan,
magenta, yellow and black.
• printing inks are composed of a
pigment(carbon black), a binder(an
oil, resin or varnish of some kind)
and a solvent and various additives
such as drying and chelating
agents.
 Paint Industry
• Equipments used in Paint Industry
1. Mixers
2. Mills
3. Filters
4. Packaging Machines
 Mixers
• Mixers are used to achieve homogeneity
between different components, specially in
the production of varnishes or water-based
paints. Mixers are used in the following
operations:
 Mixer Operations
• Mixing oils or resins.
• Mixing pigments and fillers with coating
materials.
• Decreasing the viscosity of resins, and
varnishes.
• Mixing additives with paints or varnishes.
• Adding solvents or diluting agents (thinner) to
paints, to adjust the viscosity.
• Preparing emulsion (water-based) paints.
 Types of mixers
• Manual mixers.
• Automatic mixers.
• Kneaders.
• Colloid mills.
• Rotary churns.
• Mixing by air streams.
 Mills
• Paints industry uses different types of mills
such as;
• Roller mills
• Ball mills
 Mills Operations
• Lead to the desired homogeneity as the dye is
dispersed into its particles.
• Operated and controlled accurately to maintain
the desired finesse of dyes.
• Roller mills are used for light color paint grinding
and also useful when non volatile solvent is being
used.
• Ball mills are used to grind dark color paints and
can be useful even when we have volatile
solvents.
 Filters
• During the manufacturing steps in paints or
varnishes industry
• during the oil heating process the liquids are
contaminated by foreign matters that fall into
them
• paint may contain particles that were not
ground to the required size
• some polymers that didn’t dissolve
• Some surface hardness may also exist.
Types of Filters used
 Packing machines
• Following are the different methods of
packaging
1. Manual
2. Semi-automatic
3. Automatic
The method useful for the packaging is
can be selected considering the size of
production in plant.
Flowchart of Paints
Manufacturing Steps
 Production of solvent-based
(household/ industrial) Paints
• Followings are the common operations
performed in paint industry for the manufacturing
of paint;
Mixing
Grinding
Intermediate storage
Thinning/dilution
Filtration and finishing
Packaging and storage
 Mixing
• Alkyd resins or vegetable oils (boiled
linseed oil), fatty acids, pigments (titanium
dioxide), fillers (talc, and calcium
carbonate), and plasticizers are weighed,
and fed automatically to the mechanical
mixers.
 Grinding
• After mixing, the mixture (batch) is
transferred to the mills for further mixing,
grinding, and homogenizing. The type of
used mill is related to the type of pigments,
vehicles, and fillers.
 Intermediate storage
• In some plants, after grinding, the batch is
transferred to an intermediate storage
tank, because the batch may need further
grinding to obtain the required degree of
homogeneity.
 Thinning/dilution
• The batch is then transferred from the
intermediate storage tank to a mixer for
thinning and dilution, where solvents, and
other additives are added.
 Filtration and finishing
• After thinning, the batch is filtered in a
filter, to remove nondispersed pigments
and any entrained solids. Metal salts are
added to enhance drying (cobalt, lead,
zirconium).
Packaging and storage
• The paint is poured into cans or drums,
labeled, packed, and moved to storage,
each step being completely automatic.
 Production of Water-based
Paints
• Mixing and thinning/dilution
• Grinding
• Mixing of additives
• Intermediate storage
• Filtration and finishing
• Packaging and storage
Details of the above mentioned processes will
be more or less same as that of solvent based
paint production process.
 Production of Printing Inks
• Printing inks consist of a fine dispersion of pigments
or dyes.
• Vehicle may be a drying oil with or without natural
or synthetic resins.
• Drying oils or petroleum oils and resins are used
• Three main types of printing inks; black inks, paste
inks, and liquid inks.
• The paste inks are used in manufacturing of pens,
and the black inks in newspaper print,
• liquid inks for printing on metals, plastics, carton.
 Operations of production
•Mixing
•Grinding
•Intermediate storage
•Filtration and finishing
•Packaging and storage
The details of processes will be same
 Production of Varnishes
• A varnish is an unpigmented colloidal
dispersion or solution of synthetic and/or
natural resins in oils or urethenated oils
dissolved in true solvents
• Mixing
• Filtration and finishing
• Packaging and storage
Health and Safety of Consumer
Following recommendations should be
performed when we are handling paints.
• Airless spray safety
• Earthing
• Brush and roller safety
• Barrier creams
• General precautions
 Airless spray safety
• Application of paint by airless
spray is becoming increasingly
popular.
• This rapid method can generate
a respiratory health hazard.
• Protective equipment
necessary includes eyeshields,
head cover, rubber gloves and
overalls.
 Earthing
• High velocity flow rates of paint
and cleaning solvents in airless
spray application will cause a
buildup of static electricity
• To eliminate fire risk from this
cause, earthing of the airless
spray gun and unit is essential.
• Rubber and plastic garments are
particularly prone to this effect.
 Brush and roller Safety
• The precautions required are
minimal.
• Discomfort due to eye splashes
is perhaps the most important
mishap that can occur.
• This can be eliminated by the
use of inexpensive eye shields.
• Hand protection is also desirable,
plastic or rubber gloves being
suitable for this purpose.
 Barrier creams
• It is difficult to remove dried paint
from the skin using only soap and
water without the prior use of
barrier creams.
• The use of a proprietary industrial
skin cleanser followed by a skin
conditioner (to replace lost natural
oils) is often the best way of
overcoming these skin cleaning
difficulties
• Greasy substances such as
vaseline or petroleum jelly should
not be used.
 General precautions
• Do not smoke while stirring, handling and
applying compositions.
• Always wash hands before smoking and
eating.
• In case of splashing, wash skin immediately
with soap and water.
• If splashes get into eyes, flood copiously with
water at once and obtain medical attention.
 Environmental Impacts of Paint
Followings are the components of paint cause pollution and harmful
effects.
• Basic manufacturing components
• VOC emission
• Thinner and solvents
• Pigments
• Waste Disposals
 Environmental Impacts of Paint
Basic Manufacturing Chemicals:
• some of the components of these products that present the potential for serious
ecological and toxicological risks during their production manufacture,
application, use, and ultimate disposal for example; Solvents, monomers,
softening agents, and biocides etc.
• Paints are a major source of indoor air pollution
• US Environmental Protection Agency puts paint on its top-five list of
environmental hazards
VOC Emission:
• Studies have found that the cumulative VOC emissions from architectural
painting operations exceed the harmful ozone formation and peroxyacetyl nitrate.
• ozone from paint emissions irritates eyes, nose, throat and lungs; reduces
breathing capacity
• The VOC content of paint and the CO2 emitted during manufacture are key
contributors to environmental impact .
 Environmental Impacts of Paint
Thinners and Solvents:
• Mineral turpentine (used as a thinner and solvent) may contain up to 20%
benzene, which is a confirmed carcinogen and mutagen in chronically
exposed workers
Pigments:
• Many metal pigments used in paints (e.g. cadmium) are highly toxic.
• Titanium Dioxide is also a toxic pigment.
Waste Disposal:
• Another problem with synthetic paints is post-application wastage and
disposal.
• Waste needs to be specially treated to avoid adverse environmental
impacts.
• Water-soluble gloss paints require dilution of 40m to 1 to render their entry
to the sewerage system harmless.
 Are there truly earth friendly paints
available?

• There are many paints emerging on the market that are very
low in VOC's.
• Contain alternative volatile organic compounds known not to
cause cancer.
• Some manufacturers replace the nastier VOC's with ammonia
and acetone - also human and environmental poisons.
• The challenge for manufacturers is that it's very difficult to
remove all VOC’s.
• A paint with volatile organic compounds in the range of 5 g/l or
below can be labeled "Zero VOC“.
• But it still contains these chemicals and you need to be
careful.