Paint production business is a very lucrative business in Nigeria and it requires very little capital. You do not need a very big production line or heavy equipments as paint production can be done manually.
There are different types of paint which includes: text coat, satin paints etc, but our focus is on the production of emulsion paint.
To get started, you’ll need to get the following materials, the underlisted chemicals are readily available in Nigerian market.
1) Buckets of various sizes preferably big.
2) Water
3) colourite
4) Calcium carbonate.
5) Nitrosol
6) P.V.A
7) Hydrosol
8) Acrydext
9) Formalin and Ammonia (NH3)
10) Titan dioxide ( Titherni)
and of course your working attire.
However, before you start the process, you have to know the color of paint you’d like to produce as this will help with not mixing up the chemicals and also to have an idea of what your end product should be.
The various functions of each chemicals are underlisted below:
1) BUCKET
This is to serve as a container to get the mix. Buckets or containers are essential in the production of emulsion paint. Containers could be in form of drums depending on the quantity of paint being produced.
2) WATER
Water serves as the dissolving agent used in mixing the chemicals together. A clean normal water is enough for this task.
Note: Do not use hot water as some chemicals are volatile when used with hot water. Also, hard water should not be used. A typical example of hard water is the rain water.
Hard water cannot easily lather with soup as it contains some chemicals like potassium, magnesium etc. This type of water is not good for paint production.
Soft water do not contain as much chemicals as hard water and is perfect for paint production a typical example of soft water is well water etc.
3) COLOURITE
This phase of emulsion paint production should not be difficult if you are creative with and an ample knowledge of the primary colors ( Red, Black, Blue, Yellow, Green) an understanding of these colours brings about the creation of other colors.
Primary colors are the foundation for the varieties of colors we have. Other colors are gotten from mixing these primary colors.
Since colourite are also in powdery form it needs to be dissolved in water and mixed.
However, if you are having problems with this phase, you can stick with the production of white paint for a start to minimise waste.
4) CALCIUM CARBONATE
This chemical is in powdery form and it is readily available for purchase. However, you have to bear in mind that calcium carbonate are of two types that is, Dolomite and Cacite.
While Dolomite is perfect for pure white paint production, Cacite is good for production of off white paint (cyan).
In case of white paint production, ordinarily dissolving the calcium carbonate gives you a white paint but the quality of the white paint is dependent on the type of calcium carbonate used.
5) NITROSOL
This chemical mainly serves as a thickener for the emulsion paint, it effectively hold the paint together.
6) P. V. A
Polyvinyl acrylic popularly called PVA is a very important chemical in paint production as it is the main binding force in an emulsion paint.
However it requires a technical know-how to successfully apply it.
7) HYDROSOL
This serves as an “enhancer”, it enhances Tge colour of the paint and gives it the attractive brightness.
8) ACRYDEXT
This is an alternative chemical used instead of Nitrosol as it serves the same purpose as Nitrosol.
9) FORMALIN AND AMMONIA
Both chemicals listed above serves the purpose of maintainability. It preserves the emulsion paint.
10) TITAN DIOXIDE
This is also a readily available chemical it also performs the function of an enhancer. However, it works best with white paints.
I want to believe the functions of the major chemicals needed in the production of emulsion paint has been duly explained, I’d like to take you through the various steps in the production using the production of one bucket of emulsion paint as a case study.
STEP 1
Dissolve and mix the calcium carbonate in water.
Fill up the bucket with water up to half and then dissolve the calcium carbonate. However, in the production of white paint, the titan dioxide should be added first this is to ensure the quality of the paint is high.
After this is done, mix very well.
Note: Endeavor to mix it very well as any mistake in this stage would affect the overall quality of the paint being produced.
STEP 2
Add color in small bits. After you must have dissolved the colorite to get your desired color, then add the color to the mixture from step 1 bits by bits until the desired color is reached.
However, when adding color, you should bear it in mind that paints gets lighter when dried, don’t forget to mix very well.
STEP 3
Add some kilograms of polyvinyl acrylic (PVA) depending on the size of the container been used for the process after which the Nitrosol should be added. Since the Nitrosol chemical is in powdery form, it should first be diluted in water before adding it to the mixture.
STEP 4
Add some centilitre of Formalin and about the same amount of ammonia followed by the hydrosol.
At each addition of a new chemical, the mixture should be thoroughly mixed.
Note: The steps listed above should be duly followed as any mistake would lead to the paint spoiling which in turn would lead to a wastage of resources.
To avoid this, the steps should be followed to the last detail.
The steps listed above are the basic principles in the production of emulsion paint. In large scale production, the same principle should be applied but you might require more manpower and a larger work space to avoid cramping.
In this case, buckets are not used for the mixing process and a larger capital is required as more chemicals would need to be bought.
I hope this article has been of immense help to you and you can now produce emulsion paint following these guidelines.