Performance additives for coatings: wetting agents, dispersing, rheology modifiers, defoamers, surface additives, and epoxy curatives.
Coating performance is defined by the additives in the formula. A 0.5% dosage of the right wetting agent can double your color strength. The right rheology modifier eliminates sag on a 200-micron build coat. The right defoamer prevents the pinholes that cause premature corrosion failure. Target Chemicals supplies a comprehensive portfolio of performance additives from BYK (ALTANA) and specialty curatives from Nouryon to paint and coating manufacturers across Jordan and the Levant.
Whether you formulate architectural emulsions, industrial maintenance paints, protective epoxies, wood lacquers, automotive OEM or refinish coatings, or printing inks, our additives solve the most common — and most stubborn — formulation challenges. Our chemists work alongside your R&D team to select additives, optimize dosage, and verify performance through systematic testing.
Architectural coatings
Industrial coatings
Protective coatings
Wood coatings
Automotive coatings
Printing inks, adhesives, and plastics
Pigment wetting and stable dispersion are the foundation of every high-quality coating. Poor dispersion wastes pigment, reduces color strength, increases viscosity, and leads to defects such as flooding, floating, and settling. BYK’s additive portfolio addresses every pigment type and binder system:
DISPERBYK — High-molecular-weight polymeric dispersing additives designed for organic pigments and carbon black. DISPERBYK additives anchor to the pigment surface through multiple adsorption sites and provide steric stabilization through extended polymer chains, delivering lower grinding viscosity, higher achievable pigment loading, improved color strength and transparency, and superior gloss retention. Grades are available for water-borne, solvent-borne, and solvent-free (100% solids and UV-cure) systems.
BYK-W — Wetting and dispersing agents designed specifically for inorganic pigments and mineral fillers — titanium dioxide, iron oxides, zinc oxide, calcium carbonate, talc, barium sulfate, and silica. BYK-W additives improve filler incorporation, reduce grinding time, and prevent the hard settling that makes pigment pastes difficult to re-disperse after storage.
ANTI-TERRA — Controlled-flocculation additives that prevent flooding, floating, and Bénard-cell formation in pigmented coatings. ANTI-TERRA additives maintain controlled pigment orientation during film formation, ensuring uniform color development, preventing color rub-out, and eliminating shade inconsistency in tinting systems. Essential for universal colorants and point-of-sale tinting machines.
Controlling viscosity, flow behavior, sag resistance, and anti-settling properties determines whether a coating applies smoothly, levels properly, stays on vertical surfaces, and remains stable in the can. BYK’s rheology platform covers every major technology used in modern coating formulations:
RHEOBYK — Liquid and powder rheology additives that build pseudoplastic and thixotropic viscosity in solvent-borne, solvent-free, and radiation-cure systems. RHEOBYK products are effective across a wide polarity range and provide the controlled shear-thinning behavior that ensures good brushability or sprayability combined with excellent anti-sag on vertical surfaces.
BYK-420 — Polyurethane-based thixotropic agent that delivers exceptional sag resistance in high-build coatings, heavy-duty corrosion protection systems, industrial maintenance paints, and protective linings. BYK-420 builds thixotropy without affecting recoatability, intercoat adhesion, or final film clarity.
CLAYTONE organoclays — Modified bentonite rheology modifiers that provide reliable thixotropy, anti-settling, and anti-sagging in solvent-borne coatings, adhesives, sealants, and drilling fluids. Available in multiple activation grades optimized for different solvent polarities — from aromatic hydrocarbons to aliphatic and polar solvent systems — ensuring compatibility across a wide range of formulation chemistries.
Foam and entrapped air cause surface defects, pinholes, craters, and reduced film integrity — all of which compromise coating performance and aesthetics. BYK defoamers eliminate foam at every stage of the product lifecycle:
BYK-A series — Silicone-based and mineral-oil-based defoamers that provide rapid knockdown of macrofoam during manufacturing (milling, mixing, filling) and sustained anti-foaming throughout storage, tinting, and end-user application. Grades are tailored for water-borne emulsions, solvent-borne systems, and 100%-solids formulations.
BYK-1790 — Silicone-free defoamer specifically developed for water-borne architectural and decorative coatings where silicone-related contamination must be avoided. Silicone contamination can cause cratering defects when recoating or when applying subsequent coats over silicone-defoamed primers. BYK-1790 delivers effective foam control without this risk, making it the preferred choice for premium interior and exterior architectural paints.
Surface additives fine-tune the properties of the dried or cured coating film — including slip, leveling, anti-cratering, scratch resistance, cleanability, and substrate wetting:
BYK-300 series — Polysiloxane-based surface additives that reduce surface tension, improve substrate wetting on low-energy surfaces, eliminate craters, orange peel, and edge-pull defects, and provide slip for improved scratch and mar resistance. Available in grades optimized for water-borne, solvent-borne, and UV-cure systems, with varying degrees of surface tension reduction to match the specific defect being addressed.
BYK-SILCLEAN — An innovative easy-to-clean surface additive technology that migrates to the coating surface during film formation and creates a low-surface-energy, anti-soiling layer that dramatically simplifies maintenance. BYK-SILCLEAN significantly reduces dirt pick-up on exterior coatings and eliminates stubborn stains on interior walls — substantially reducing maintenance costs for commercial and residential buildings over the coating’s lifetime. Compatible with a wide range of water-borne architectural formulations including styrene-acrylics, pure acrylics, and silicone-modified emulsions.
For thermoset coating and adhesive systems, Target Chemicals supplies Nouryon’s ethylene amine curing agents — the workhorses of epoxy chemistry used in protective, marine, industrial, and civil-engineering coating applications:
DETA (Diethylenetriamine) — Fast-curing, low-molecular-weight amine hardener for ambient-cure epoxy systems. DETA provides rapid cure speed at room temperature, high crosslink density, and excellent chemical and solvent resistance. Widely used in protective coatings, civil engineering adhesives and grouts, and solvent-free floor coatings. Also serves as an intermediate for polyamide curing agents and epoxy adducts.
TETA (Triethylenetetramine) — The most widely used general-purpose amine hardener, offering balanced reactivity and moderate pot life. TETA delivers good mechanical properties, chemical resistance, and adhesion in room-temperature-cure epoxy coatings, flooring systems, structural adhesives, and composite fabrication.
TEPA (Tetraethylenepentamine) — Higher molecular weight provides improved flexibility, impact resistance, adhesion to damp surfaces, and water resistance compared to DETA and TETA. TEPA is specified for demanding protective and marine coating applications where long-term durability under immersion and weathering conditions is critical.
These ethylene amines also function as raw materials for the production of polyamide curing agents, epoxy adducts, Mannich bases, and waterborne amine dispersions — giving formulators versatile building blocks for custom epoxy hardener systems.
Nouryon organic peroxides serve as free-radical initiators for the cure of unsaturated polyester resins (UPR), vinyl-ester resins, and acrylic systems used in coatings, gel coats, composite fabrication (FRP/GRP), and cast polymer products such as cultured marble and solid-surface materials. For polyester and vinyl-ester cure systems, we supply standard MEKP grades for room-temperature cure as well as specialty peroxide initiators tailored to specific gel-time profiles, cure temperatures, and reactivity requirements across both saturated and rapid-cure applications. Our technical team provides detailed guidance on peroxide selection, dosage optimization, accelerator pairing, thermal profile management, and safe handling practices for demanding composite and casting operations.
Our Consumer & Ingredients team is here to help with product selection, samples, and formulation support.
