Oil-Based vs. Water-Based Paint: A Comparative Analysis

Difference of main components

Any coating that uses water as a solvent or as a dispersing medium can be called a water-based coating, or an environmentally friendly, clean-smelling, odorless film-forming additive. As the name suggests, water-based coatings should be more environmentally friendly. Water-based paint film-forming material is mainly water-soluble resin.

Oil-based paint, also known as grease paint, oil-based paint is mainly composed of four parts: film-forming substances, pigments, solvents, additives. The current film-forming material has been from the previous tung oil, linseed oil, catalpa oil and other inexpensive oils and fats into the excellent performance of the synthetic resin paint. Pigment is the colorful paint on the market. Solvent is a film-forming material will be dissolved or dispersed into a homogeneous liquid oil-based coatings, easy to construct into a film. Additives is an auxiliary component of the oil-based coatings. There are protection, decorative function but slow drying, coating film physical and chemical properties are poor.

Advantages of water-based paint

Water-based paint is water-soluble paint, non-toxic and environmentally friendly, does not contain harmful solvents such as benzene, does not contain free TDI. Water-based paint is water as a diluent, 70-90% of its composition is water that is harmless to humans and the environment, does not contain benzene, halogenated hydrocarbons, and other toxic organic solvents and heavy metal compounds such as formaldehyde, lead, chromium and so on, and does not require curing agent, does not have a free TDI volatilization problem, so it is a safe and non-polluting environmentally friendly paint.

Secondly, water as a solvent has good flame retardant properties, non-flammable and non-explosive, easier for safe storage and transportation. The hardness of water-based paint reaches more than 2H, and the fullness is high, the film is fine and smooth, especially water-based wood paint.

Disadvantages of water-based paint

1. Water-based coatings require high cleanliness of the material surface during the construction process, as the surface tension of water is high and dirt can easily make the coating film produce shrinkage.
2. Water-based coatings are unable to counteract the dispersion of mechanical forces. When the flow rate in the conveying pipeline changes drastically, the dispersed particles are compressed into solid particles, causing the coating film to produce pockmarks. It is required that the conveying pipe is in good shape and the pipe wall is free from defects.
3. Water-based coatings are highly corrosive to the coating equipment, which requires corrosion-resistant lining or stainless steel materials and high equipment cost.
4. Baking-type water-based coatings have strict requirements for the construction environment (temperature and humidity), which increases the investment in temperature and humidity regulating equipment.
5. The latent heat of evaporation of water is large, and the energy consumption of baking is large. Cathodic electrophoresis coating needs to be baked at 180℃, while the time for latex coating to be completely dry is very long.
6. Organic co-solvents with a high boiling point produce a lot of fumes during baking, which condense and drip on the surface of the coating film, affecting its appearance.
7. Water-based coatings have poor water resistance, which makes the stability of coatings and tank liquids poor and the water resistance of coating film poor. The medium of water-based coatings is generally slightly alkaline (PH7.5～pH8.5), and the ester bond in the resin is easy to hydrolyze and degrade the molecular chain, which affects the stability of coatings and tank liquids, and the performance of the coating film.

Advantages of oil-based paint

Oil-based paint, also known as grease paint. Taking dry oil as the main film-forming substance, there are mainly varnish, thick paint, oil-based blending paint, oil-based antirust paint and putty, putty, etc. The oil used is mainly tung oil, linseed oil, catalpa oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil, fish oil and so on. The oils and fats used are mainly tung oil, linseed oil, catalpa oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil, fish oil, etc., which are characterized by easy production, low price, good brushability, film flexibility and good permeability.

Disadvantages of oil-based paint

The disadvantage of oil-based paint is that it contains strong irritating odor, the gas contains a large number of harmful substances, harming human health, generally 1-2 months after the use of strong irritating odor evaporates to basically tasteless, but a large number of harmful gases will still be slow-release volatilization 10-15 years.

In summary, although water-based paint also has disadvantages, but from the perspective of environmental protection, water-based paint is more environmentally friendly and healthy than oil-based paint.

Polyaspartic polyurea paint is 100% solid content paint, also known as solvent-free paint, is more environmentally friendly than water-based paint, is the best environmental grade paint.

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