Paint requires a thinner or reducer for even color distribution.
Painting a small artistic canvas, or even an entire house, requires a free-flowing paint. However, the paint cannot be too thick or too thin. The resulting picture, or paint job, will suffer from streaks or drips from improperly prepared paint. Most paints require a thinner or reducer for producing a quality paint surface. Yet, thinners and reducers do differ in chemical composition.
Overall Purpose of Thinners and Reducers
Both thinners and reducers lower a paint's viscosity, or thickness. Paint purchased directly from the paint store is typically very thick. A painter adds a specific amount of thinner or reducer to the paint, producing a thinner consistency for easier paint application.
Chemicals Within Thinners and Reducers
Thinners and reducers function differently because of their chemical composition. A diluent fluid, such as water, added to a paint lowers the thick consistency. However, the diluent does not react, or dissolve, with the paint's film-generating particles. In contrast, a solvent, such as turpentine, dissolves the paint's particles to thin out the paint's overall viscosity.
Thinner and Reducer Composition
Thinners use a mixture of diluent and solvents, whereas reducers use a blend of different solvents. Reducers tend to affect the paint's final appearance in terms of the drying time as well as its adhesive ability on the painting surface. However, both thinners and reducers evaporate out of the paint film before drying is complete. The final paint job will strictly consist of the paint film's particles.
Environmental Impact
The evaporation aspect of thinners and reducers affects the environment. In particular, solvents evaporate into the air, contributing to air pollution. Solvent exposure in humans can produce respiratory tract and eye irritation. Many paint industries, such as car manufacturers, that use paint on a daily basis must enclose their paint application areas. The outgoing air from the enclosed space must be filtered for overall employee and community safety.
Alternative Paint Types
Tight paint emissions controls, stipulated by state and federal governments, have prompted changes within the industries that require paint applications. Some businesses have changed to less volatile paint types, such as powder coating. Other businesses are experimenting with their paint types by using different solvent and diluent combinations that are less harmful to the environment.
Thinner and Reducer Considerations
Changing the thinner or reducer's chemical composition directly affects the final paint quality. From a business aspect, paint changes can negatively affect the paint's final quality coverage. Additionally, altering the thinner or reducer can actually increase the final price of a product, damaging profit margins. Companies must weigh all facets of a paint alteration before applying the change to the overall product line.
