The Waterborne Symposium

Abstract
Fence Exposures Drive Innovation in Exterior Coatings
Co-authors: Tara Conley, John Calderaio, Solomon Vincent III

Exterior binder development for the architectural market has a significantly longer timeline than binder development for the interior paint market.  Therefore, the toolbox for innovation in the exterior market must encompass several facets: decision making based on accelerated methods paired with weathering data collected on the test fences, and continuous surveying of the commercial paint market to determine innovation needs.  The push for accelerated testing has mirrored the drive for exterior binder development over the years.  Many accelerated test methods have been developed to foster faster decision making on binder chemistries and formulation differences, but the question remains, how do they correlate with Mother Nature?  Another tool used for innovation is benchmarking the commercial landscape, which helps identify performance gaps in the market and understand relationships between paint marketing claims and the performance delivered by the paint.  This paper will demonstrate the balancing act required to deliver innovation for exterior coatings by understanding commercial product performance, accelerated exterior weathering methods for screening fast failures, and long-term test fence exposures that can validate innovative performance.