Rheology

Thickening agents are used in varnishes in order to

give the systems certain rheological properties.
Rheology plays an important part both in production
and in applying a system:
Already when dispersing the pigments the flow
properties of the system will be of great importance.
If the viscosity of the system is too low, an optimum dispersion will not be possible because
then a large part of the energy supplied will be lost by the turbulent flow properties. A certain
viscosity will also be necessary in storing in order to prevent any sedimentation of pigments
and fillers. During application the rheological behaviour will influence, for instance, the flow,
running and coating behaviour as well as the thickness of the layer.

Some basic terms in rheology

Rheology means the forming and flow behaviour of substance under the influence of external
forces.
In this connection terms like shearing force, ultimate shearing strain are important.
These terms can be explained by means of a working hypothesis:
If you imagine that a liquid volume consists of a number of parallel layers and the top layer is
displaced with a force F, whereas the bottom layer will remain fixed, all layers will be
influenced by this force. The effect of the force F will become less and less the greater the
distance of the respective layer to the top layer is. This means the shearing stress is the
force by means of which two neighbouring layers are moved to each other in relation to each
other. The shear force is the force (F), which will act on the top layer.

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In practice the „top layer“ will be in direct contact with the
agitating unit whereas the „bottom layer“ is in contact with the
wall of the container.

Between these two a difference in speed will occur. This speed divided by the distance
between the two layers is called the shear rate (also shear gradient, shear speed).

Different property profiles will result from the behaviour of a substance with different shear
forces which are called Newtonian flow, pseudoplasticity, thixotropy and dilatancy effect.

Newtonian behaviour means the flow rate of a substance which does not depend on the
shear rate (e.g. water, pure solvents).

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Pseudoplasticity is to be found if the flow rate of a substance will decrease with increasing
shear rate (almost all varnishing systems).
Thixotropy will describe a behaviour with which a hysteresis will occur between flow curves,
which are measured with increasing or decreasing shear rate.
In case of dilatancy the flow rate of a substance will increase with increasing shear rate.

The illustration above shows different processes and the shear forces caused by them. The
sedimentation of pigments, for instance, is connected with very low shear forces whereas, for
example, very large forces will be at work when spraying a varnish.

The thickening agents used in the varnishing industry can be divided according to their
chemical composition in inorganic and organic ones.
Inorganic thickening agents are, for instance, (organically modified) layer silicates or
pyrogenic silicic acids.

The illustration above shows the phases of the disintegration of a bentone:

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The compound consists of laminas which are put one on top of the other. In this condition
these thickening agents are active, therefore they have to be „disintegrated“, i.e. it is
necessary to separate the laminas so that the thickening effect can unfold by the formation of
a so-called house of cards structure. This structure is then destroyed by shear forces,
however, will build up again afterwards quite fast and will then produce a pseudoplastic or a
thixotrope behaviour.
Organic additives are, for instance, cellulose derivates, acrylate thickening agents,
polyurethane thickening agents (e.g. Schwego Pur 6750, 8020 and 8050). These compounds
are called associative thickening agents because they function as links e.g. between binding
agent molecules and this way build a three-dimensional network, as shown in the following
illustration by the example of La Thix FB:

Schwegmann offers five rheological additives:

The three polyurethane thickening agents Schwego Pur 8020, Schwego Pur 8050 and the
new Schwego Pur 6750, Dis Thix extra on the basis of a natural bentonite and La Thix FB,
an associative thickening agent on the basis of an aluminium-organic compound.
Schwego Pur 8020 shows more a Newtonian, Schwego Pur 6750 and 8050 pseudoplastic
behaviour. Schwego Pur 8020 does not contain any organic solvents and can therefore be
used in solvent-free systems.
La Thix FB is a very interesting product for solvent-based systems: It is liquid, can be easily
worked in and is very suitable for the subsequent viscosity adjustment. It will not cause any
gloss reduction and is quite suitable for use with clear varnishes and transparent systems.
La Thix FB will produce a pseudoplastic rheology.

Bernd Schwegmann GmbH & Co. KG – Wernher-von-Braun-Str. 14 – 53501 Grafschaft-Gelsdorf – Germany – www.SchwegmannNet.de
The following list will contain further information:

Product designation Fields of application Binding agent Application

systems
conventional water dilatable
coatings coatings

La Thix FB very suitable not suitable alkyds, air-drying thickening agents

alkyds/ polyester viscosity correction
acrylate, reactive
epoxy resins

Schwego® Pur 6750 not suitable very suitable acrylate thickening agent for interior
styrol-acrylate paints and house paints as
PU-dispersions well as dispersion varnish
paints

Schwego® Pur 8020 not suitable very suitable plastics dispersions on PU-thickening agents for
the basis of solvent-free systems
polyacrylates,
styrolcopolymers
PU-dispersions
alkyds

Schwego® Pur 8050 not suitable very suitable acrylate thickening agent for interior
styrol-acrylate paints and house paints as
PU-dispersions well as dispersion varnish
paints

Schwego® Pur
Pseudoplasticity
45000
Schwego Pur 8020 (forth)
Schwego Pur 8050 (forth)
40000 Schwego Pur 6750 (forth)
Schwego Pur 8020 (back)
Schwego Pur 8050 (back)
35000
Schwego Pur 6750 (back)

30000
viscosity [mPas]

25000

20000

15000

10000

5000

0
1,29 2,58 5,16 10,32 20,64 41,28 82,56 165,1 330,2 660,5
shear rate [1/s]

Bernd Schwegmann GmbH & Co. KG – Wernher-von-Braun-Str. 14 – 53501 Grafschaft-Gelsdorf – Germany – www.SchwegmannNet.de
 Comparison of thickening agents
Neo-Rez R972 Polyurethan Dispersion
16000

14000

12000

Schwego Pur 8050

10000 Schwego Pur 8020
Rheolate 278
viscosity [mPas]

Acrysol RM 2020
Acrysol RM 1020
8000
Acrysol SCT 275
Ser-Ad-FX 1070
Ser-Ad-FX 1050
6000

4000

2000

0
0,50% 0,80% 1,10% 1,40% 1,70% 2,00%
addition amount

Comparison of thickening agents

Liocryl AM 912 Acrylat Dispersion
16000

14000

12000

Schwego Pur 8050

Schwego Pur 8020
10000 Rheolate 278
viscosity [mPas]

Acrysol RM 8
Acrysol RM 2020
Acrysol RM 1020
8000
Acrysol SCT 275
Ser-Ad-FX 1070
Ser-Ad-FX 1050
6000 Rheolate 244

4000

2000

0
0,50% 0,80% 1,10% 1,40% 1,70% 2,00%
addition amount

These graphs show that Schwego Pur 8050 (and similar to this product Schwego Pur 6750 is
more effective than a lot of other common PU-thickeners.

Bernd Schwegmann GmbH & Co. KG – Wernher-von-Braun-Str. 14 – 53501 Grafschaft-Gelsdorf – Germany – www.SchwegmannNet.de