Pages Menu
Categories Menu

Posted by on May 6, 2016 in TellMeWhy |

What Is Paint Made From?

What Is Paint Made From?

What Is Paint Made From? Ordinary house paint gets its color from colored powders called pigments. Pigments can come from ground-up rocks, or coal, or tar, or chalk and even from clay. The powdery pigment is mixed with liquid binders and thinners. Turpentine and water are the most common thinners.

Thinners make the thick paint easy to brush onto a surface. When the binder dries, it hardens into a film that holds the pigment on the painted surface. Indoors, paints give our homes and other buildings color and brightness. Outdoors, they also protect surfaces from the weather.

Paint is a material that is applied as a liquid which dries by a variety of chemical processes to a solid consisting of pigment, resin, solvent and additives.

Pigment provides color, hiding and control gloss. Resin is the binder used to hold the pigment particles together and provide adhesion to the surface painted.

Solvent acts as a carrier for the pigments and resin – the solvent may be organic (such as Mineral Turps) or water. Additives enhance certain properties such as ease of brushing, mould resistance, scuff resistance, drying and sag resistance.

Content for this question contributed by Kristin Doebler, resident of North Tonawanda, Niagara County, New York, USA