Home > Services > Coatings & Paints Testing > Physical Testing & Evaluations

Physical Testing & Evaluations of Coatings & Paints

We help the coatings industry evaluate products for various physical properties critical to product performance and success. Our testing facility evaluates the short-term and long-term durability behavior of paints and coatings. Our extensive paints and coatings testing facility provides accurate, on-time answers.

CAS-MI Laboratories helps answer difficult questions such as:

  • Why is my coatings product losing adhesion?
  • What is causing blisters or bubbles to form in my applied coating?
  • How stain-resistant is my paint product?

Physical testing capabilities include:

  • Application Properties
  • Liquid Coating Properties
  • Film Appearance
  • Coatings Performance

Application Properties

Whether by brush, roll or spray, manufacturers need to know how their product will behave while being applied. CAS-MI Laboratories examines different properties of coatings while the product is still wet.

Application evaluations include:

  • Contact angle
  • Flow and leveling
  • Sagging
  • Spread rate
  • Wet film thickness

Our paint testing specialists can also examine specific functions such as splatter in roller applications or atomization in spray painting.

Our coating testing facility can evaluate drying speed including:

  • Dry-to-touch
  • Dry-through
  • Mechanical
  • Laser light scattering
  • Low temperature drying
  • Film formation

CAS-MI can test touch-up characteristics of brush, roll and spray applications as well, whether at low or room temperature conditions.

Liquid Coating Properties

Testing liquid coating properties can help evaluate characteristics that are critical to the product's success in the marketplace. These may include:

  • Stability
  • Flash point
  • Color acceptance
  • Minimum film-forming temperature
  • pH
  • Syneresis
  • Viscosity

CAS-MI Laboratories has developed special expertise in VOC testing by EPA Test Method 24. Our scientists have measured volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in paints and coatings for both manufacturers and end users.

Film Appearance

Applied coatings appearance properties may be evaluated for their aesthetic or visual characteristics. These may include:

  • Reflectance
  • Yellowing of other discoloration
  • Hiding power
  • Dry film thickness (DFT)
  • Dry hiding (from porosity)
  • Gloss (20, 60, 85 degrees)
  • Opacity, intrinsic (contrast ratio, scattering coefficient)
  • Opacity, applied (brush, roll, spray)
  • Color by integrating sphere colorimeter. L*a*b*, L*c*h*, DE

Coatings Performance

Many manufacturers have turned to CAS-MI to learn how their product will perform over time and under different environmental conditions. CAS-MI Laboratories has developed expertise in examining a wide range of film performance properties including:

  • Hardness
  • Flexibility
  • Adhesion
  • Abrasion
  • Impact resistance
  • Chemical resistance
  • Corrosion resistance
  • Stain resistance
  • Washability
  • Degree of cure
  • Critical Pigment Volume Concentration (CPVC)

Our paint experts also evaluate potential coating failures or problems. These may include:

  • Blocking
  • Blistering
  • Chalking
  • Cracking
  • Water spotting

CAS-MI can also test a coatings' durability performance under various environmental and exposure conditions.