When it comes to automotive paint, the OEMs and high-end shops leave nothing up to chance. Entire “clean rooms” are devoted to applying paintwork systems, with advanced environmental controls keeping out contamination to ensure paint bonds perfectly with zero risk of disadhesion.
Why don’t ceramic coatings get the same treatment? They adhere to paint in the same way paint adheres to body panels — through cross link bonds. Shouldn’t they get the clean room treatment, too? Unfortunately, this usually is not the case.
Most detailers, even those with sophisticated facilities, don’t have access to the kind of specialized equipment needed to set up a “clean room” paint booth. Without that, how can you get this same sterile environment and ensure your coating applications don’t fail?
Well, as it happens, there are two unique features of Dr. Beasley’s Nano Surface Primers that provide this kind of environment for any paint they correct: 1. Their silicone-free formulation and 2. Their unique “Cut & Cover” mechanism. We’ll break down how they work below.
Silicone Oil-Free Formulation
When it comes to applying automotive paint, silicone is the enemy. OEM factories and body shops will go to great lengths to ensure there is absolutely no silicone contamination on the panels they’re painting.
The presence of silicone creates a weak attachment to the surface, forming something called a “weak boundary layer”. This layer prevents direct contact between the paint and the surface, destabilizing or preventing bonding altogether.
(Not to scale)
Silicone is also highly chemical and heat resistant, so it’s very difficult to completely remove with cleaners. Even aggressive chemicals still leave behind a layer of silicone. For this reason, professional painters keep their application environments totally devoid of silicone.
Because ceramic coatings bond in the same way automotive paint does, they too need a substrate free of silicone contamination. Unfortunately, as we’ve discussed in the past, far too many polishes are formulated with silicone oils, kneecapping the coating bond from the get-go.
Since silicone is so hard to remove, professionals have found the best way to get rid of it is to never introduce it in the first place.This is why it’s so imperative to use correction tools formulated without silicone oils, like Nano Surface Primers.Instead of bonding with a weak boundary layer, the coating will bond with the NSP foundation created by the “Cut & Cover” mechanism.
(Not to scale.)
Cut & Cover: A Clean Room For Your Paint
Silicone oils aren’t the only enemy of a durable bond — general environmental contamination also poses a threat. In a professional automotive paint application setting, the room will be completely sealed off from any and all particles looming in the air, as even a particle 10 microns in size can cause a defect or interruption in adhesion. These same principles apply to ceramic coating application, too.
As we said earlier, however, most detailers aren’t going to have access to the kind of “clean room” environment the OEMs use. What they do have access to are Nano Surface Primers and their “Cut & Cover” mechanism.
As NSPs correct defects with their microsphere abrasives, the nanogel the abrasives are suspended within forms a protective nanocoating barrier over the correction work. This creates a sterile, clean room environment for that paint that is immediately sealed off from any contamination.
Wrapping It All Up
With this level of silicone elimination and environmental protection, it’s possible to achieve a ceramic coating bond on par with that of a professional painting booth environment. Detailers installing coatings should hold themselves to the highest standards in delivering paintwork protection that is built to last — Nano Surface Primers make that possible.
FEATURED PRODUCTS
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