Throughout the history of paint development, water-based paint is undoubtedly the darling

2026-09-09 11:12:42

Throughout the history of paint development, the exploration of ideal coatings has been winding and long. When humans realize the importance of environmental protection and health, they are shifting from solvent based paints to Water-based Paints. Waterborne wood paint combines various advantages and meets people's demands for environmental protection, naturalness, and diversity, becoming the darling of the paint industry.

lacquer

The history of lacquer is very long. Thousands of years ago, ancient people began to use lacquer. Daqi is a lacquer liquid naturally secreted from the lacquer tree, which gradually darkens in color upon exposure to air due to oxidation. Due to the difficulty of blending raw lacquer into bright colored lacquer, most ancient lacquerware was black and red in color. Da Qi faced a real challenge in the 20th century. Due to the limitations of single variety, low labor productivity, low degree of batch production, and high cost, the application scope of lacquer has become increasingly narrow with the emergence of modern chemical coatings.

tung oil

Due to limited production of lacquer, ancient people found tung oil again. Tung oil is easier to obtain than lacquer, so people added tung oil to lacquer and mixed it with lacquer, giving rise to the term 'paint'. Raw tung oil has a slow drying speed, and the transparency and viscosity of the paint film are poor, making it unsuitable for direct use in painting. Cooked tung oil boiled at high temperature has good stability, certain hardness and ductility, but its anti-aging performance is not as good as that of big paint. The cooking process of mature tung oil is relatively complex, and there is no unified quality standard for tung oil products on the market. The tung acid contained in tung oil is irritating to the mucosa, and after absorption, it can damage the liver and kidneys, and ingestion can lead to poisoning.  

paint

The term "paint" comes from the golden combination of tung oil and lacquer, but the name "paint" can no longer cover various products in the industry. The term 'paint' is now more widely used. Due to the rapid development of the modern coatings industry, the usage of the names "paint" and "coating" has become confusing. There are a wide variety of coating products, but from the perspective of environmental protection and health, it is necessary to understand the difference between Water-based Coatings and oil-based coatings. The difference between water-based coatings and solvent based coatings lies in the different dispersion media.

Solvent based coating

Coatings that use organic solvents as dispersion media are called solvent based coatings (oil-based paints/coatings). Organic solvents are mainly composed of hydrocarbons, with the rest being ketones, alcohols, ethylene glycol, ethers, esters, etc. These highly volatile organic compounds are the main cause of paint hazards to the environment and health. VOC "refers to the concentration of volatile organic compounds. The hazards of VOCs to the human body may include respiratory diseases, eye irritation, headaches, dizziness, skin allergies, fatigue, etc. In severe cases, they may damage the liver and kidneys or cause cancer.

water-based paint

Coatings that use water as a dispersing medium are called water-based coatings. Water based coatings use water-soluble resins as film-forming agents. In the early stages of the development of modern chemical industry, almost all coatings were solvent based coatings. Later, in order to reduce VOC emissions, water-based coatings, powder coatings, UV curable coatings, and so on emerged. In recent years, China has introduced various regulations to significantly reduce the proportion of traditional solvent based coatings.

The trend of water-based paint replacing oil-based paint

Compared with oil-based paints, water-based paints can save a lot of resources, eliminate safety hazards, improve the working environment for construction workers, greatly reduce air pollution, and benefit human health. In addition, the performance of water-based paint is not inferior to oil-based paint, and the effect is very natural and rich. Although the transformation from oil to water is necessary in industries such as furniture and automobile manufacturing, no one can reverse the historical trend. Water based paint is a major highlight of the development of "paint" and a well deserved favorite in the paint industry today.