Jinzong Machinery | Cosmetic Machinery & Chemical Machinery Manufacturers
Disperser: The "Heart" of Coatings Production
Coatings, as indispensable functional materials in industrial manufacturing and daily life, have their performance directly determining product appearance, protective effectiveness, and service life. From the lasting gloss of automotive paint to the weather and stain resistance of building exteriors, from the fine texture of furniture surfaces to the adhesion strength of primers—achieving each performance indicator relies on a critical step in the production process: dispersion. The disperser, as the core equipment in this process, can be called the "Heart" of coatings production. By applying efficient mechanical energy, it solves the challenge of integrating solid particles with liquid media, thereby ensuring high-quality, stable, and efficient coatings production. Below, Jinzong Enterprise, with over two decades of experience in the research, design, and manufacturing of dispersers, provides a detailed introduction.
The essence of coatings lies in their nature as multi-component dispersion systems, comprised of film-forming substances, pigments and fillers, solvents, and additives. Among these, pigments and fillers—the core components providing color, hiding power, and mechanical strength—typically exist as solid particles with a strong tendency to agglomerate. If these agglomerates are not effectively broken down and uniformly dispersed within the film-forming substance, issues such as uneven color, sedimentation, caking, and insufficient hiding power will directly arise, severely compromising application results and product quality.
The core function of a disperser is to generate powerful shear, impact, and centrifugal forces through high-speed rotating agitator blades or grinding media. When raw coating materials enter the dispersion vessel, the high-speed blades create an intense turbulent flow field. Agglomerated pigment and filler particles are torn apart into fine primary particles under shear forces. Simultaneously, collisions and friction between particles further break down the agglomerated structures, enabling the fine particles to be uniformly coated by the film-forming substance. Taking the dispersion of titanium dioxide in latex paint as an example, inadequately dispersed titanium dioxide forms agglomerates, leading to reduced hiding power and patchiness after application. In contrast, after efficient processing by a disperser, titanium dioxide particle size can be controlled at the micron level and uniformly dispersed within the system. This not only significantly enhances hiding power but also reduces the amount of titanium dioxide required, achieving cost savings and efficiency gains.
This effect of uniform dispersion extends beyond the distribution of pigments and fillers to ensure that functional components like additives are evenly distributed within the coating system. For instance, uneven dispersion of a leveling agent can cause sagging or orange peel effects in localized areas after application. The action of the disperser ensures additives are fully incorporated into the system, guaranteeing consistent leveling performance across the entire coating, thereby improving application convenience and the aesthetic quality of the finished product.
Enhancing Performance Support: Boosting the Core Competitiveness of Coatings
The contribution of dispersers to coating performance goes far beyond uniformity. They also play an irreplaceable role in achieving core performance indicators such as weather resistance, abrasion resistance, and adhesion. From a microscopic perspective, the degree of pigment and filler dispersion directly affects the compactness of the coating film. When particles are uniformly dispersed in their primary state, they can pack densely during film formation, creating a structurally stable coating. This effectively blocks the ingress of moisture, oxygen, and UV rays, thereby enhancing the coating's weather resistance and anti-corrosion properties.
Consider industrial anti-corrosion coatings used on outdoor structures like bridges and pipelines, which must withstand harsh environmental erosion over long periods. Insufficient dispersion of pigments and fillers creates voids and weak points within the coating film, allowing corrosive media to easily penetrate, leading to coating failure and substrate corrosion. Anti-corrosion coatings optimized by dispersers, with uniformly distributed pigment and filler particles filling the voids, form a continuous, dense protective film. This can extend the coating's salt spray resistance from several hundred hours to several thousand hours, significantly prolonging the substrate's service life.
The role of the disperser is even more critical in the automotive coatings sector. Automotive topcoats require extremely high gloss and mirror-like effects. Dispersers enable precise control over dispersion speed and time, ensuring the directional alignment of effect pigments like aluminum flakes and pearl pigments. This guarantees a uniform metallic gloss and three-dimensional effect on the painted surface while enhancing abrasion and scratch resistance, meeting both the aesthetic and functional performance demands of automotive finishes.
Furthermore, efficient dispersion by dispersers improves the storage stability of coatings. Thoroughly dispersed particles are less prone to settling and re-agglomeration, allowing the coating to remain uniform even after prolonged storage. This prevents issues like separation and caking, reduces losses during storage and transportation, and enhances the product's market competitiveness.
Optimizing Production Processes: Driving Efficient Upgrading in the Coatings Industry
In the transition of coatings production from traditional workshop-style methods to modern industrialization, technological advancements in dispersers have provided powerful momentum for improving production efficiency. Early coatings production often relied on manual stirring or low-speed mixing equipment, resulting in low dispersion efficiency. The dispersion process for a single batch could take several hours, with inconsistent outcomes that struggled to meet the demands of large-scale production. Modern dispersers, through upgrades in motor technology, structural design, and intelligent control, have achieved a leap-forward improvement in dispersion efficiency.
Today, high-speed dispersers can reach rotational speeds of several thousand revolutions per minute. Coupled with optimized blade designs—such as sawtooth blades or anchor-style blades—they can complete raw material dispersion in a short time, reducing single-batch production time to just tens of minutes and multiplying production efficiency severalfold. Furthermore, the combined application of dispersers and grinding equipment has established an efficient production workflow of "pre-dispersion — fine grinding." The disperser first preliminarily mixes and disperses pigments, fillers, and film-forming substances to create a uniform pre-dispersion slurry, which is then fed into the grinder for fine grinding. This not only reduces the load on grinding equipment but also avoids grinding dead spots caused by particle agglomeration, further enhancing production efficiency and product quality consistency.
Amid the trend toward intelligent production, dispersers are increasingly being integrated into the smart control systems of coatings manufacturing. Equipped with sensors and PLC control systems, dispersers can monitor real-time parameters such as temperature, rotational speed, and pressure during the dispersion process. They can automatically adjust operation based on preset programs, achieving precise control over the dispersion process. For example, if the temperature rises excessively during dispersion, the system can automatically reduce the rotational speed or activate cooling mechanisms to prevent damage to coating performance. Additionally, intelligent control systems can record production parameters for each batch, providing data support for product quality traceability and production process optimization. This drives coatings production toward automation, standardization, and intelligent development.
Adapting to Diverse Needs: Driving Innovation in the Coatings Industry
As the coatings industry continues to evolve, market demands for functional coatings are becoming increasingly diversified. From environmentally friendly water-based coatings and high-solid coatings to specialty functional coatings—such as fire-retardant and conductive coatings—different types of coatings require varied production processes. In response, dispersers are also undergoing continuous upgrades to meet these diverse needs.
For water-based coatings, which use water as the dispersion medium, the dispersion of pigments and fillers is relatively more challenging, and foam control during the process is critical. To address this, specialized dispersers for water-based coatings are designed with low-shear, high-circulation blades that ensure effective dispersion while minimizing foam generation, thereby preventing adverse effects on application and performance. In the case of high-solid coatings, which have higher viscosity, traditional dispersers struggle to achieve uniform dispersion. High-efficiency dispersers overcome this by enhancing motor power and optimizing blade structures, improving their ability to mix and disperse high-viscosity systems and ensuring even distribution of pigments and fillers.
In the field of specialty coatings, the precise control capability of dispersers becomes even more crucial. For instance, conductive coatings require uniform dispersion of conductive particles—such as carbon black or metal powder—within the system to ensure stable conductive properties of the coating. Dispersers achieve this by precisely controlling dispersion speed and duration, preventing agglomeration of conductive particles and guaranteeing consistent conductivity. Similarly, fire-retardant coatings rely on thorough dispersion of flame-retardant particles to form a continuous protective layer. The efficient dispersion provided by dispersers serves as a core guarantee for the fire-retardant performance of such coatings.
Conclusion: An Indispensable Core Equipment
From raw material mixing to performance enhancement, from production efficiency optimization to adaptation to diverse needs, dispersers are integral to every stage of coatings production. Their performance directly determines the quality and competitiveness of coating products. As the coatings industry transitions toward environmental sustainability, high performance, and intelligence, dispersers will continue to undergo technological innovation. Through more efficient dispersion, more precise control, and broader adaptability, they will provide stronger momentum for the innovative development of the coatings industry. It can be said that dispersers are no longer merely mixing equipment but an indispensable "heart" of coatings production, supporting the industry’s progress toward higher-quality development.
About Jinzong Enterprise
For over two decades, Jinzong Enterprise has dedicated itself to the design and manufacturing of machinery and equipment for the chemical, food, and pharmaceutical industries, as well as the research and development of intelligent control systems, engineering design, and installation services. With a design and marketing service center located in Guangzhou and two production plants established in the Zhaoqing National High-Tech Industrial Development Zone, the company possesses qualifications for manufacturing special equipment pressure vessels and installing pressure pipelines (GC2 grade).
Recognized as a National High-Tech Enterprise and a provincial-level "Specialized, Refined, Distinctive, and Innovative" enterprise, Jinzong operates a provincial engineering technology research center. It holds two provincial famous brand product titles, dozens of product patents, software copyrights, and provincial-level high-tech product certifications. The company has achieved compliance with the National Intellectual Property Management System Standards, obtained ISO 9001:2015 International Quality Management System certification, and earned the EU CE Mark. It has also been consistently honored as a "Guangdong Provincial Contract-Honoring and Trustworthy Enterprise" by the Guangdong Administration for Market Regulation.
Serving customers across more than 50 countries and regions worldwide, Jinzong has gained widespread recognition and support from over 2,000 enterprises, both large and small, around the globe. As the saying goes, "To do good work, one must first sharpen one's tools." Upholding the philosophy of "Quality as Precious as Gold, Craftsmanship as the Foundation," Jinzong is committed to providing advanced, automated production lines to manufacturing plants everywhere. We warmly welcome friends from all over the world to visit and collaborate with us.
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