The design criteria is for a “coating that looks like metal.” This means a metallic paint that is platinum color. It is for interior application over medium density fiberboard (MDF) at a display case. I assume wood trim is also involved.
The kicker is VOC limitations. The local air quality management district is one of the most stringent in the country. Primer and clear top coat are not a problem. It’s the metal “paint” (intermediate or color coat).
We have looked at “Scuffmaster” products by Master Coating Technologies (MCT), Inc. but the VOC of the intermediate coat appears might not comply, according to the manufacturer’s list of SCAQMD-compliant products. Could it be exempt as a “pigmented metallic coating?”
PPG’s Coraflon can go over mdf just fine - I have done it. In fact, in quite a similar situation.
You will have to get special surface prep over the mdf and wood from PPG, but they can work it up for you.
The material also has a 10 year warranty, but that is typically associated with metal substrates. It may not have the warranty on wood/mdf.
For color selection, you can choose any of the Durnar colors including the true metallics and the mica based ‘2-coat’ systems, though the mica are not as metallic looking.
Also, unlike the Durnar coatings you can control the gloss level in a plus or minus 5 percent range from a very flat 15% to a very high gloss 80%.
The material does have very low VOC, not sure exactly what, but it is very low. They can tell you specifically.
The coating can be applied in a shop condition, or it can be applied in the field. But its not going to be someone just showing up with paint in a can. Its going to be a certified applicator. It would probably be best if they could take the pieces to be coated to their shop to apply, just like you would do for any item of architectural woodwork. You will get a better quality application, but again, it can be done in the field.
Feel free to say I said you should contact him and that I can recover the information about the surface prep for the mdf board. That was done just a bit before he was involved with Coraflon.
Scuffmaster reports their “Solid Metal” metallic paint to have 5 - 15 percent aluminum flakes. The South Coast Air Quality Management District definition of metallic coating requires at least 0.4 lbs/gallon of elemental metal, excluding zinc. Thus, by crude estimate, it seems like it might just make the definition of metallic. (I’d verify that, though.) In that case, its 139 g/l VOC content is well under the 500 permitted for metallic coatings. My interiors department loves this stuff and uses it all the time.
My interiors people like Scuffmaster, too, and it doesn’t stink, so the building managers like it because adjacent tenants don’t complain. (Some of our existing buildings here have ventilation issues in the elevator cores.) It complies with South Coast. I actually have come to dislike it because we use it so much, and because it doesn’t have a very high sheen. Its highest gloss is most people’s satin.
When the space can be properly ventilated so that adjacent tenants won’t smell the product, there’s a very nice polyurethane system called PCI PC3. My Frazee rep reps it to me, here on the West Coast. It’s a nice hard coating, less than 100 g/L, complies with South Coast, and is available in metallic-flake and solid colors. It’s also available in any sheen from full-gloss down to flat.
Vivian,
I couldn’t find the PCI PC3 on Frazee’s website. Is this a product that they distribute but don’t manufacture? I’d like to see if we can get back east.
Found it: Precision Coatings Inc. ( http://www.precisioncoatingsinc.com) based in Missouri, distributed by Frazee and others. Doesn’t look like it makes it to the upper right corner.