DOWSIL™ 401LS Additive

Dow introduces an innovative family of silicone slip and leveling agents for solventborne, waterborne and radiation curable wood, furniture and plastic coatings, inks and overprint varnishes:

• DOWSIL™ 205SL Additive
• DOWSIL™ 204SL Additive
• DOWSIL™ 401LS Additive

Are you looking to differentiate your formulations by offering systems that provide a pleasing hand feel and improved flow and leveling performance, but can’t find additives that don’t affect recoatability or foam stabilization? Do you have a wide range of resin systems targeting many different applications and are having difficulty finding just the right additive for each system?

Dow's innovative family of slip and leveling agents allows you to identify tailored solutions and fine-tune your solventborne, waterborne and radiation curable coating, ink and OPV formulations for optimum performance on wood, furniture and plastic substrates.

DOWSIL™ 401LS Additive brings excellent wetting and leveling properties, which can positively impact film appearance. And it achieves these results at use levels as low as 0.075% based on total formulation, further increasing its cost effectiveness. Where some additives impact coating clarity (due to incompatibility) and recoatability, DOWSIL™ 401LS Additive has no impact on these properties.

Figure 1: Dynamic coefficient of friction, leveling and recoatability of a solventborne, 2K PU wood coating containing various Dow additives versus competitor additives. Additives were added at 0.2% by weight in the total formulation.

Figure 2: Additives tested in a solventborne, two-component polyurethane wood coating at 0.2% by weight, showing that DOWSIL™ 401LS Additive bring best-in-class leveling properties with good recoatability.

Key features of specific slip and leveling additives

• DOWSIL™ 205SL Additive is a multipurpose silicone additive offering top performance in leveling, slip and hand feel, combined with excellent defoaming properties. 
• DOWSIL™ 204SL Additive provides excellent slip, superior hand feel, better recoatability and improved clarity with comparable leveling speed, particularly for radiation curable formulations. 
• DOWSIL™ 401LS Additive provides excellent wetting and leveling in solventborne formulations at use levels as low as 0.075% and without affecting clarity or recoatability. 
• DOWSIL™ 57 Additive and DOWSIL™ 402LS Additive complete the family of additives. Both are standard Dow Consumer Solutions products for leveling. 

While each individual product has primary properties that deliver key performance benefits in a formulation, the final choice of additive should also depend on its secondary attributes. Together these characteristics will reflect the exact combination of properties required for a given application.

Figure 3: Primary and secondary benefits of DOWSIL™ slip and leveling additives.