How to run a matting silica trial in a waterborne wood coating

In short: Run the candidate matting silica beside your current grade in the same waterborne clear, at the same loading, drawn down on the same substrate the same day. Read gloss at two angles, clarity on a black panel, feel, dispersion effort and can stability after storage. Sensilchem starts waterborne trials with CENSIL 230W and sends 525L beside it for comparison.

What you need

  • Your production waterborne clear (the real resin, not a model system)
  • The matting grade you use now, plus the candidate sample set
  • Bar coater or spray gun, glass and black-and-white panels, a wood offcut
  • Gloss meter, a Hegman gauge, viscosity cup or rheometer, a warm oven for storage

Step by step

  1. Fix everything except the silica

    Use one batch of resin, one solvent blend and one applicator for every sample. If the loading, film build or drying schedule moves between samples, the gloss reading will move with it and the comparison is lost.

  2. Disperse under production-like shear

    Add the silica to the let-down the way the plant does it, not with a laboratory magnetic stirrer. Record the time to reach the same Hegman reading for each grade — dispersion effort is a result, not a side note.

  3. Draw down on three substrates

    Glass for clarity, a black panel for haze, and the wood species your customer actually uses. Cure or dry every panel on the same schedule and keep them together while they condition.

  4. Read gloss at two angles

    Measure at 60° and 85° and record both. The 85° reading separates a grade that matts well at a distance from one that looks flat but sheens when the panel is tilted — the reading that ends up in a complaint.

  5. Compare clarity and feel side by side

    Lay the black panels next to each other in daylight and look for milkiness. Run a hand across the wood panels: soft-touch versus dry-chalky feel is a real specification for furniture buyers.

  6. Store the wet paint and re-check

    Keep the tinted samples in the warm oven for one to two weeks, then check for settling, sag on a vertical panel and any viscosity build. A grade that wins on day one and cakes in the can has not won.

Mistakes that spoil the comparison

  • Comparing a candidate at a different loading from the incumbent and calling the result a grade effect.
  • Judging matting from a single 60° reading on glass only.
  • Skipping the storage step because the first panels looked good.

Questions we get asked

How long does a matting trial take?

A meaningful first pass takes about two weeks: one to three days for dispersion, draw-downs and readings, and one to two weeks of warm storage for the stability check.

Do you send more than one grade for a waterborne trial?

Yes. A waterborne set is normally CENSIL 230W as the main candidate with CENSIL 525L beside it, so the treated-versus-organically-treated difference is visible in your own system.

Tell us what is failing in the process

The material you use now, the formulation or resin, the equipment and the target you need to hit. That is enough for us to say whether we have something worth testing.

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Application & sales Ms. Nina Zhang nina@sensilchem.com +86 597-2200392
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