Boyd’s Scuff-Resistant Metal Coatings

Boyd’s Scuff Resistant Coating and Ink Families:

Therefore, to ensure that our customer’s products could maintain their beauty and functionality throughout their life cycle, Boyd’s in-house chemists formulated a proprietary anti-scuff family of custom coatings and inks identified. Coatings and inks in this family withstand the real-world harmful scuffing forces that automotive trim components encounter regularly throughout their lifetime to preserve the original aesthetic and functional needs of the component for a prolonged period. The coatings underwent a variety of qualitative and quantitative tests in order to prove the superior scuff-resistant properties of this additive. One such rigorous test subjected the coating samples to aggressively brushing the surface with steel wool as the abrasive material at selected weights in multiple directions, known as our steel wool abrasion test.

Boyd’s scuff-resistant coatings are a significant improvement to our existing coating chemistry. The improved coatings and inks still have the same solvent resistance, stain resistance, and formability. This breakthrough coating technology can be applied to either aluminum or stainless steel constructions with low to high gloss without having any aesthetic effects, while maintaining its performance benefits in a wide variety of severe environments, from high heat to extreme cold. Our steel wool abrasion test results showed that the average product will scuff when subjected to two to three double rubs of steel wool pads when under a downward pressure of 3000 grams. Coatings and inks with the new additive could exceed 100 contacts with the steel pad under the same conditions with little to no scuffing.

During our battery of tests, we were able to validate that this family of coatings meets the industry standard specifications for the following:

Adhesion:

• Humidity resistance (GM4465P) – a test where the sample is exposed to 100% relative humidity at 38°C (100.4°F) for a specified time.
• Impact cross-hatch tape pull (ASTM D-3281) – a one-pound ball or cone is dropped at a specified vertical distance to an area that had been cut with a knife or crosshatch tool. The sample is tested with adhesive tape for any coating removal.

Scratch and Mar:

• Taber abrasion (ASTM D4060-1) – test samples are placed on a Taber rotating plate with a grit wheel of a specified
  grade and are abraded for a number of cycle turns with a given weight applied on each grinding wheel. The samples
  are graded by number of cycles for wear through point of the coating.
• A new type of scratch and mar test using steel wool – this test uses 000 steel wool that is rubbed back and forth with
  the weight of 3,000 grams applied. The end point is measured by the number of “double rubs” the sample could
  sustain before the coating began to wear through.

Solvent Resistance (GM9509P):

• This is usually tested by using a solvent that is specified by the paint supplier (commonly MEK). A soft solvent-saturated cloth is rubbed back and forth on the sample a number of times using the firm downward pressure of a gloved finger. The number of “double rubs” specified for a “pass” varies, but it typically ranges from 10 to 50 rubs.

Improved Film Properties Including:

• High durability in all environments of radiation and moisture
• Increased resistance to abrasion, scratching, and marring
• Improved adhesion and film flexibility
• Better impact resistance
• No detectable effect on accelerated xenon-arc exposure, helping to protect the color or gloss level fading over time

Boyd has years of process innovation and material science experience in the automotive industry. Learn more about our eMobility capabilities.