30.05.2016

A Major Breakthrough for Wood Primers

Dorfner’s innovative Refineral® DORVALIT® WSP is the ideal filler for water-based wood coatings which retain their beautiful appearance – without special product marking and at lower total costs.

Wood extractives present a special challenge for coatings which are applied to wood substrates. Substances such as polyphenols protect the tree and its wood from attack by herbivores and insects but they have intense coloring. Without additional additives, the colored extractives migrate through the primer into the topcoat, causing unsightly discoloration (often not visible until months later) on light-colored furniture finishes and items made of wood.

With its innovative DORVALIT® WSP filler, Dorfner has succeeded in finding an eco-friendly solution for water-based barrier coat primers which do not require special product marking. Using patent-pending Wood Stain Protection Technology (WSP), it is now possible to isolate and permanently bind colored extractives in the primer coat. The lock-and-key mechanism efficiently captures the extractives, preventing them from reaching the topcoat. Defects caused by spot formation can be prevented for years even on wood species which have high extractives content such as merbau, larch and Scots pine.

In contrast, wood primers containing organometallic inhibitors or additives such as zinc oxide and zinc phosphate are regarded as an environmental hazard, and a warning label must normally be placed on the primer product.

DORVALIT® WSP also has tangible economic benefits. The new fillers have outstanding barrier properties and high application flexibility. As the result, manufacturers can drastically improve the effectiveness of their wood primers while reducing the use of metalliferous additives through replacement by DORVALIT® WSP. Another option is to include DORVALIT® WSP right from the start in formulation development. With these new wood primers, the users of conventional wood coatings for ceilings and industrial wood varnishes may need one less coating step and take far shorter to dry. Total system costs can be cut by more than 25 % through the use of wood primers containing DORVALIT® WSP.