teaser
With Tivida, Merck KGaA is offering the automotive industry completely new perspectives. The Tivida brand is a new product group of additives developed for application in various coating systems that significantly increases the scratch resistance of automotive coatings.
Small, every-day scratches from wiping over the surface, for example, can be avoided or reduced by the addition of Tivida. The first product in the brand family, Tivida AS 1010, was developed specifically for high-gloss, solvent-based two-component PUR coating systems.
Tiny particles – maximum effect
The effectiveness of the innovative core-shell nanoparticle additive is attributed to its ingenious structure. Inorganic SiO2 nanoparticles are embedded in a covalent polymer shell with OH functionality. This enables a perfect binding of the additive to the functional groups of diverse binding agents in coating systems. The use of functional nanoparticles is usually complicated by their strong tendency toward agglomeration. Maintaining their size during incorporation into the application media, which is critical for application success, is usually a challenge. Agglomeration can lead to reduced effectiveness, dull appearance of the coating, or higher viscosity. These reactions are now a thing of the past, thanks to the special core-shell structure of Tivida AS 1010.
The additive can be optimally incorporated into the composition of the binding agent, thus changing its structure. The nanoparticles make the solvent-based coating system harder and, at the same time, more elastic due to the cross-linking of the polymer shell with the binding agent. The cross-linkage of the additive with the binding agent occurs throughout the whole product. Thus, the desired protection against scratches is achieved not only in new coating layers, but also after weathering. Therefore, with Tivida AS 1010 it is now possible to protect high-gloss surfaces against minor every-day scratches, such as those found with most clearcoats in the automotive industry, for much longer than before.
