We use many different products as our daily requirements. They become an important part of our daily routine. When we use these products, we forget that these products are made of such material, which is inseparable part of our regular life. We do not pay attention. towards such things. Let us look at one such material which is called wax. It is used for many different purposes. One of such use, is about coating and inks. Wax has got some unique properties which make it the best option for coating and inks.
What is Wax?
It is made up of various synthetic or natural chemical compositions. There are some physical properties which makes it stand as a wax.
- It can be transparent or can be opaque but it does not appear like a glass structure.
- It does not get a state of decomposition even at the melting point of 40 C.
- The consistency of it gets change with every change in temperature.
- It shows low viscosity at the stage of temperature slightly above the melting point.
- It can be polished by rubbing, using moderate temperature.
- It is resistance to scratch.
- It gives matting effect to the applied surface.
- It shows the characteristics of hydrophobicity.
- It fulfils the requirements of blocking or anti- blocking.
Types of Wax
PTFE: This kind of wax used for high degree of slip. It is suggested for the same as it is chemical resistant.
Paraffin: Unlike other kinds of wax, the Paraffin wax is used only when there is a need of hydrophobicity. It is also capable of having slip and release properties.
Fischer – Tropsch: It is a hard wax which is very useful when a product demands scratch resistance. It also gives slip and anti- blocking properties.
Amide: It has got sandable texture. The important feature in this kind of wax is, it has a wide range of melting point to be used at different forms.
Carnauba: This wax is available in the hard form naturally. It is widely used for anti-blocking, slip or scratch resistance.
Polyethylene: It is also a hard wax which is resistance to scratch and abrasion.
Polypropylene: It is the hard kind of wax which gives a texture of a rubber. The best advantage of this wax is that, it will not increase slip property.
Microcrystalline: It is made from lubricating oils which have refined heavy distillates. It gives a strong bond by providing a combination of hydrocarbon and finer crystalline structure.
Mineral: The name itself is self-explanatory. It gives a mixture of hydrocarbons with rock salt deposit, coal, or petroleum.
Natural: Natural wax is derived from the naturally occurring organism. For example, bee wax, soy wax.
Use of wax as additives
It plays a very important role in the use of ink and the coating in accordance with the outer layer.
- It performs a task of enhancing and protecting appearance, feel, slip, abrasion, scratch resistance, and durability.
- They are available in different forms and for various purposes like wax dispersions, wax emulsions, micronized wax, matting agent, and powder coating.
- It performs a task of surface modifier. It gives a surface effect.
Formulation and mechanism.
The size of particles matters when it comes to the coating of surface area.
Too much small size can have a risk of less protection and too large size can have a chance that the wax may get removed easily. A right size becomes the crucial part of the wax delivering to the surface area. It is 25% to 33 % of the wax protrudes from the dry film surface.
It gives proper protection to coating. This is termed as a ball – bearing effect.
After determining the particle size, the next step is for emulsion. Flotation is required to get the wax up to surface layer. They are commonly used in graphics, inks. The wax should not get melted. The melting point must be taken in consideration. The drying temperature also plays an important role in such cases.
Take Away:
In this article, we have gained knowledge about the application of wax in coating and ink. It is very important to take care of melting points, layering, and particle size when it comes to apply wax formation on the surface. It is available in both the way. One is synthetic and the other one is natural. The use of wax gives slip,
Matting effects, hydrophobicity, resistance to scratch, property of blocking and anti- blocking. It does not get decomposed even at the melting point of 40C.
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