What Are Paint Crosslinkers?
Paint Crosslinker Image
Paint Crosslinkers are designed for water-based paints to link molecules together to make the paints look better, feel better and settle down better.
If leather paints were made correctly to begin with, they would not need these products added to make them settle down and look better.
Another problem with water based paints is some companies use NMP – N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone this is a very dangerous solvent. These leather paints are NMP free and extremely safe to use in your business and around your home.
Adding a cross linker to a waterborne paint has advantages and disadvantages. It’s designed to increase UV protection, flow, and produce a harder wearing surface coating. But, this causes problems as the waterborne paints need to breathe fully and so does the coating on the leathers surface.
When paint cross linkers are added to water based paints this can cause issues, such as, tightening of the surface, prevent breathing and in time this causes the hardening of the surface to take place, dry out and cracking appearing, very similar to this video below.
Paint Crosslinkers are great in some industries but where flexibility is essential from daily use it becomes problematic.
If water-based paints are formulated correctly to begin with there is no need for paint crosslinkers to be added at repair stages. Paint Crosslinkers have many inherent problems. For example, end users not using them correctly, or being given wrong advice about amounts to be used, or sellers of these products giving the wrong information out and not understanding how they work and react with leather paints.
A common issue with paint crosslinkers is crazing on the surface that almost looks like spiderwebs. Jaguar in particular had this issue in the 80’s not long after water-based paints were invented as these paints back then did not flow as good as solvent based paints. Companies were trying to be environmentally friendly by using water-based paints but defeated the object by adding a solvent based chemical back in again, this caused yellowing, crazing and many more problems.
Paint Crosslinkers are also extremely dangerous to your health. Isocyanate crosslinkers are extremely dangerous due to the cyanide within that product when being used.
Again, it’s the same as NMP solvent chemicals being added to paint to allow them to flow better, settle better and look and feel better. If paints are made correctly there is no need for either cross linkers or NMP. Paint Crosslinkers are just another way for a company to earn money from what can be classed as substandard products to begin with. NMP’s are very viscous chemicals and highly dangerous, causing fatal death, including developmental and reproductive toxicity, neurotoxicity, immunotoxicity, and liver and kidney toxicity. This range of leather paints are NMP and Cross Linker FREE extremely safe for you to use and the environment.
Paint Crosslinkers Cause Spider Webbing Affect