Fibres are surprisingly common in paints and coatings as they combine the fibre’s properties with the paint itself to create a stronger, better, and more hard-wearing product. In this blog, we’ve put together five things we think you should know about fibres in paints and coatings, from improving the finish of your paint to supercharging its durability.
1. They can improve the finish of your paint job
Fibres can be added to paints and primers to drastically improve or affect the overall finish of the paint job. In the case of primers, they serve as the foundation for the chosen paint or coating. Fibres in primers can help to fill in small gaps and cracks to make for a smoother application, as well as increasing the primer’s grip on the surface and protecting the surface from scratches, corrosion, damp, and other damage. This is particularly important when painting surfaces such as metals, as primers can be vital in helping the paint stick to the slippery surface and in helping to protect from corrosion and other damage.
Fibres are also commonly found in topcoats and can help to give good colour payoff, gloss, and structure to the paint. Fibre-added topcoats can also add protection from the weather and help the paint last longer. They can even decrease permeability to oxygen and water.
2. They can make your flooring anti-slip
Fibres and ground powders – whether natural or synthetic – are often added to flooring that sees a lot of heavy use or that often gets wet. For example, they might be used on swimming pools and surroundings, marine paints and ship deck treatments, oil platforms, car park surfaces, and other heavy-duty industrial flooring.
Adding these fibres creates more texture and resistance underfoot, meaning that the chances of slipping are greatly reduced. This is important from a health and safety standpoint.
What’s more, these anti-slip fibre flooring solutions can also be made to be flame and water-resistant to suit a wide range of applications.
3. They can make your paint fire-resistant
Fire-resistant paints are vital in a wide range of industries, from wood fire seals to fire grilles and downlighter covers. They can even be found in wall paints in areas that are vulnerable to fire. Adding fibres with high heat resistance to paints and coatings can help to improve fire resistance in industrial, commercial, and residential areas, as well as helping to control flame spread should a fire break out.
Specialist heat-resistant fibre-added paints can even be found in construction, such as on steel structures, as the fibres that are in the paints can help to keep the structure from collapsing due to high temperature in the event of a fire.
4. They can make your paint water-resistant
In some cases, wet paint can cause a lot of trouble. This is particularly true in marine settings, as paints need to survive being surrounded by water without disintegrating or becoming damaged.
Fibres and flocks are a great solution to this as, when added to paints, they can provide anti-corrosion, water resistance, and crack bridging in the harshest of environments. This means that salt water can do less damage in eroding, rusting, or sloughing off paints if they have select fibres added into them.
5. They can improve the durability of your floors
Since flooring sees a lot of wear and tear on a daily basis, it’s often the case that it wears quickly. This is particularly true for high-traffic areas such as bathrooms, hallways, and others.
For example, just imagine how much wear and tear a hospital floor gets.
However, fibres and flocks can massively improve a floor’s durability if they are added to the flooring itself. For example, they might be mixed in with epoxy resin to create a stronger and more durable resin floor. These fibres can also improve flexibility, fire resistance, and anti-slip qualities.
This will extend the life of your floor and keep it looking newer for longer.
If you want to find out more about our paints and coatings products, click here.