Vinyl Coating, the Flexible Coating for Furniture Finish

Vinyl coating is the coating that is made with vinyl resin as the main ingredient. The vinyl resin is the resin resulted from the polymerization of vinyl acetate monomer. According to the name vinyl, there are many types of resins that can be classified as vinyl resins. The vinyl acetate, vinyl chloride, vinylidene chloride, and vinyl toluene are the vinyl resins. 

But the vinyl resin that is widely used to make furniture finishing material is the vinyl butyral, the resin made from the reaction between alcohol and vinyl butyraldehyde. To make the vinyl clear coating, vinyl butyral resin is modified with phenol resin, shellac, or nitrocellulose to increase the adhesion and solubility. Lacquer thinner is added to the mix to reduce its viscosity. The ready-to-use vinyl coating is usually thin material (the solid content is about 12%). The higher solid content will result in the high viscosity that makes it difficult to be sprayed. Vinyl clear coating can be used in combination with other types of clear coating, such as nitrocellulose, polyurethane, or acid curing.

The Vinyl coating

• Vinyl sealer

It is vinyl that is used as a sealer. This vinyl paint is applied over the stain or directly to the substrate to prepare the film layer before top coat application. This vinyl sealer is also often used together with other types of paint, especially NC and acrylic, to increase finishing adhesion. This vinyl sealer contains sanding aids in it, although in small quantities, so it can be sanded relatively easily, although not as easily as other paints such as NC, PU, or AC sealer.

• Vinyl top coat

Vinyl top coat is vinyl paint that is used as the final coating. This vinyl top coat contains zinc stearate, which functions to adjust the gloss of the film layer produced.

• Vinyl base coat or vinyl paint

Vinyl base coat is vinyl paint mixed with pigment, so it has color. This paint can be used to paint solid colors on certain materials that require flexibility, such as rattan, leather, or natural materials such as banana, water hyacinth, raffia, canvas, or other moving substances.

 vinyl finish for rattan

The properties of vinyl coating

• elastic

The vinyl layer has elastic and flexible properties. The resulting film can be bent without cracking. This coating can be used to coat the flexible and movable substrate

• Low solid content

Vinyl coating has low solid content; the average solid content of this coating in application is about 12%.  If the solid content is increased, the viscosity of the coating will increase quickly and increase the difficulty in application.

• Difficult to be sanded

The vinyl coating is difficult to be sanded. The film resulted is flexible and sticky and tends to stick on the sandpaper.  The addition of sanding agent is also limited. Too much sanding agent will increase the viscosity of the coating and make the application difficult.

• High compatibility with other type of coating

The coat has high compatibility with other coatings. He can be applied in combination with NC or acrylic. For  some cases, he can also be applied with other type of coating, such as PU, AC and water-based

The uses of vinyl coating

• To finish the movable substrate

Vinyl coating is one of the most appropriate finishing materials for the finishing process on flexible and moveable substrates such as rattan, leather, water hyacinth, banana leaves, and other moving media. 

• To add the adhesion of the finishing

Vinyl coating is usually used together with NC or acrylic paint to increase the adhesion of the finishing layer.  Vinyl coating is sometimes used to overcome finishing adhesion problems that are often found in finishes that use filler or glaze.

Things that need to be considered when using vinyl coating for finishing

• This coating is not suitable to build thick film 

This coating has low solid content and is difficult to be sanded. It is not suitable to make the finishing with thick layer and film build. Many layers of coating are needed to build the film. The coating also takes a longer time to dry and is difficult to be sanded which makes it more complicated in application for the process. 

• use this coating carefully

When the coating is used in combination with another type of coating, then it must be done carefully. Make sure the combination works well and gives a good result. Do test the finishing process on a small panel and make sure it is well before using it in the product or big volume work.