Miscellaneous Topics

HOW DO STAINS "PHOTOGRAPH" THROUGH A COATING?

Q:  What is the difference between paints, coatings, enamels and lacquers?

A:  We tend to use the word “paint” in a general manner without being specific about its properties. In most cases lay persons use the word to refer to the architectural consumer products that we purchase in a hardware store to decorate our homes.

Coatings and paints are one and the same thing, but we often refer to “coatings” when we speak about industrial applications. Therefore, we might place more emphasis on the performance properties of “coatings” compared with “paints”.  Frankly, we can use the word “coatings” to refer to both industrial and consumer products.

Enamels are coatings, and therefore also paints, but they have the specific properties of high gloss and decorative color.  Therefore, we might say that we will use a bright red “enamel” to paint children’s furniture.

The word “lacquer” is often used in the same context as “enamel”, but in reality these are coatings that tend to have a very low solids content and are usually based on nitrocellulose resins.  Moreover, when they are spray applied, they dry extremely rapidly.  Lacquers are used to coat wood, and other substrates, and in many cases they are colorful and have a high gloss finish, … like an enamel.  Because they tend to be low solids coatings, they have very high VOC contents and do not comply with most current VOC regulations.  In California, they have been all but banned, although a few exemptions still apply.

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