Fengfan TL-110 Series DEFOAMING AND WETTING AGENT DF-110

Product Overview

Waterborne dispersions rarely fail on the pigment alone. The trouble usually starts when the mill base thickens as the pigment breaks down and foam gathers on the surface, and by letdown the batch has lost time to both. This defoaming and wetting agent is built to break that pattern with one addition: a non-ionic additive that goes in at the pigment dispersion stage of waterborne coatings, printing inks and adhesives, lowering viscosity and holding foam down while the pigment is being wetted out.

Most waterborne coating production chemicals treat wetting and defoaming as two separate line items dosed at two different points. Here both jobs come from the same molecule, so the defoamer normally added at the grind stage can come out of the formula: one drum on the shelf instead of two, one weighing step instead of two, and no compatibility question between two additives competing for the same pigment surface. The series comes in three grades, the diol itself and two grades of the same diol carried in solvent, so the choice depends on what your system can accept as a carrier.

Typical users are formulators running aqueous coating, ink and adhesive systems; pigment dispersion specialists producing resin-free pastes; and process engineers working on water-based inkjet coatings or silicon wafer cutting fluids, where surface tension has to come down without a stable foam forming. Distributors buying industrial surfactants in bulk also carry it as one item that covers both jobs for their coating customers.

In routine use the additive is weighed into the mill base during dispersion, checked against the viscosity and foam level of the batch, and carried through letdown. The right starting level depends on pigment loading, binder system and mill type, so the practical first step is to describe the system you are formulating and let our technical team confirm a starting point for it.

Specifications

Key Features

• Viscosity reduction where it matters. The additive wets the pigment surface and brings the viscosity of the mill base down, which lets a dispersion run at higher pigment loading, with less let-down solvent, or with easier pumping and filtration at the same loading.
• Low foaming rather than foam knocking. Foam is held back while the batch is mechanically worked instead of being broken up after it has formed, and it stays down through letdown and application, where pinholes, craters and a rough film normally appear.
• Grind-stage consolidation. Wetting and defoaming arrive in one addition, so the separate defoamer weighed in at the grind can be dropped, and with it the risk of two additives competing for the same pigment surface.
• Gloss and surface finish. A more completely wetted pigment leaves a smoother film with better gloss and less haze, which counts most in topcoats and in low-pigment or clear systems where any haze is visible.
• Colour development. Colour strength develops more fully, especially with organic pigments and carbon black, so the same colourant loading goes further than it does in a poorly wetted dispersion.
• Non-ionic behaviour. It belongs to the non-ionic surfactants group, so no ionic charge enters the formula and there is nothing to compete with the binder, the thickener or the additives already in the can.
• Made for resin-free pigments. It works as a resin-free pigment dispersant across all organic pigments and carbon black, so one grade can cover a mixed palette instead of one dispersant per colour.

Technical Composition and Measured Performance

What the chemistry does. The series is built on a branched, unsaturated diol supplied as a non-ionic dispersant. Acting as a surface active agent at the pigment–water interface, it lowers the tension that holds agglomerates together, which is what lets the mill break the pigment down rather than push it around the batch. The molecule belongs to the non ionic surfactants family, so it does not depend on pH or on a counter-ion to stay active, and it brings no charge that could upset the binder or push the thickener out of balance.

What you can measure. Three things are worth tracking when you evaluate it. Mill-base viscosity at a fixed pigment loading, where the drop usually shows within the first dispersion pass. Foam height at the mill outlet or after mechanical agitation, which is where a wetting agent on its own tends to fall short. And the dried film itself: gloss value, haze and colour strength measured against your current standard rather than against a catalogue figure.

We do not print a single dosage number here on purpose. The level that works depends on the pigment's surface area, the binder, the pigment-to-binder ratio and the equipment you grind on, and a figure lifted from another plant's formula is more likely to mislead than to help. Tell us what you are formulating and we will confirm a starting point for that system; once the lab batch is run, we will read the result with you and adjust from there.

Processing for Resin-Free Pigments and Waterborne Systems

1. Add it to the mill base during pigment dispersion, not to the finished letdown. Used as a resin-free pigment dispersant, it works while the pigment is being wetted out and broken down; added afterwards it can only treat the symptom.
2. Weigh it in with the pigment and the water phase under the shear you already run. There is no extra stage and no change to the order of addition.
3. Read the viscosity trend rather than a single figure. A clear drop within the first pass means the pigment is wetting out; a flat curve usually means the level is too low or the pigment needs more shear.
4. Watch foam at the mill outlet and at the transfer pump. Foam still standing there will still be in the can, so this is the point to adjust rather than after letdown.
5. Carry the addition into letdown if foam reappears when the binder goes in. The wetting job is finished by then, the foam-control job is not.
6. Confirm the starting level with our technical team before the first production batch, and keep the lab record: pigment grade, loading, mill type and level used are what make the next batch repeatable.

Structural and Formulation Advantages

One molecule, two functions that cannot drift apart. The wetting and the defoaming sit on the same molecular structure rather than in two separate products, so their balance is fixed by the grade you buy instead of by how carefully two additions were weighed against each other on a given shift.

No second phase to stabilise. Because the foam control comes from the same molecule that wets the pigment, the formula does not carry an additional defoamer phase that has to be dispersed, kept from creaming and checked for compatibility with the letdown. There is one product in the mill base and nothing extra to emulsify.

No charge to negotiate with. As one of the non ionic surfactants, it introduces no ionic charge, so binders, thickeners, pH adjusters and the other components keep behaving as they were designed to. The charge-driven problems that normally follow a new additive, such as flocculation, viscosity drift or separation on standing, are much less likely to appear.

A substitution, not a redesign. As a water-based additive it goes in where the wetting agent already goes: the mill base, under the shear of the dispersion. There is no new stage, no extra vessel, no change to the order of addition. Where a formula already runs a dispersant at the grind, the change is normally a replacement rather than a reformulation.

Room to adjust the rest of the system. Since the molecule does not rely on pH or on a counter-ion, the formulator stays free to move the binder, the pH or the rheology package without re-qualifying the wetting and defoaming side each time.

Operational Efficiency

• Fewer line items in the batch record. A plant running a long list of coating production chemicals drops one item from weighing, stores and reconciliation, and removes the chance of two operators reading two different lines off the same sheet.
• Shorter dispersion cycles. When viscosity comes down early, the mill spends less time working a stiff paste, and batches that used to need a second pass or a solvent top-up can often be run straight through.
• Less foam-related downtime. Foam that overflows a tank, cavitates a pump or blinds a filter costs production time, and holding it back at the source removes those interruptions instead of reacting to them.
• Fewer rejects from trapped air. Pinholes, craters and rough films caused by air left in the wet film are usually caught at inspection, when the whole batch is already made, so keeping foam out of the dispersion is cheaper than reworking it.
• More consistent output between batches. With wetting and foam control coming from one product, two variables move together instead of separately, and gloss and colour repeat more closely from batch to batch.
• A shorter list to qualify. Two functions from one item mean fewer industrial surfactants to approve, stock and reorder, which matters most to a distributor or to a plant with a slow incoming-approval process.

Applications

Architectural and Automotive Coating Production

• Air made in the mill ends up in the film. A high-speed disperser in an architectural paint pulls air in faster than a post-added defoamer can clear it, so the practical place to deal with it is the grind, where the additive is already wetting the pigment.
• Exterior appearance is judged years later. Haze, gloss uniformity and colour consistency on an exterior wall or a coated panel are decided at dispersion, which is exactly where a water-based additive can still change the outcome; a badly wetted pigment is the usual reason one batch looks flat next to the previous one.
• Automotive films are thin. Waterborne primer and basecoat layers leave little room for trapped air or undispersed crumb, so the additive has to wet fully and leave nothing behind that interferes with the next coat. Check adhesion and intercoat behaviour on your own panels before a full trial.
• Colour matching tolerances are tight. In automotive work a small shift in colour strength between batches is a rejection, and fuller pigment development narrows the gap between the lab standard and the production batch.
• Campaigns run long. Both sectors run extended production campaigns, and a batch that foams over or gels in the tank stops the line, so holding the mill base stable through the run is worth more than a marginal raw-material saving.
• It has to live inside the existing package. Emulsion paints already rely on non-ionic surfactants for wetting, stability and freeze–thaw behaviour, so the additive has to sit inside that package rather than compete with it, which is why a non-ionic wetter is the safer substitution.

Inkjet Inks and Silicon Wafer Cutting Fluids

Water-based inkjet inks and coatings. An inkjet ink has to bring surface tension down far enough to wet the head and the media, and then must not foam while it is pumped, filtered and jetted. Those two requirements pull in opposite directions with most wetters, which is where this defoaming and wetting agent earns its place: the tension drops while the foam stays flat. In an inkjet coating the same balance decides whether the layer lies down evenly or shows pinholes and thin spots where air was trapped. Print quality, filtration behaviour and head stability should still be confirmed on your own rig before scaling up, because a laboratory ink and a production ink rarely behave identically once the pigment loading and the filtration train change.

Silicon wafer cutting fluids. A cutting fluid has to wet the wafer and the slurry, keep foam out of a high-speed circulating system and rinse away cleanly afterwards. Foam in the loop reduces cooling, can starve the cutting zone and leaves deposits that show up later as surface defects. Working as a surface active agent at a low treat level, the additive lowers the surface tension of the fluid without building the kind of stable foam that a conventional wetter produces under circulation. Confirm the addition level against your own fluid package, since the other components already contribute their own surface activity and the total is what decides the result.

Ordering and Delivery

Storage, Handling & Safety Data

• Store it closed and dry. Keep the drum or IBC sealed in a cool, dry, ventilated store, out of direct sunlight and away from heat sources, and keep the closure tight between dispensings so what you dose is what was analysed.
• Read the label before the first weigh. Every container carries the product code (TL-110, TL-110D or TL-110BC) and a batch number; note it before the first weigh so the batch record stays traceable.
• Handle it as an industrial chemical. Wear gloves and eye protection, keep the dispersion area ventilated, avoid prolonged skin contact and wash hands after handling. The solvent-carried grades deserve the same ventilation you already give the solvent in the mill base.
• Deal with a spill before it reaches a drain. Absorb small spills with inert material such as sand or vermiculite, sweep up and dispose of it as chemical waste under your local rules; do not wash it into a floor drain or a watercourse.
• Ask for the safety data sheet with the quotation. The SDS is issued for the grade you are actually buying, together with the specification sheet, and it is the document an internal HSE review will ask for before the drum is opened.
• Request compliance statements per grade, in writing. If your approval process needs a written position on cyanide or hexavalent chromium content, or on REACH or RoHS status, raise it at quotation stage; the statement is issued against the specific grade rather than as one general line for the range.
• Check the transport classification before booking freight. The solvent-carried grades travel under the classification shown on their SDS, so pass the sheet to your forwarder before an air or sea booking is confirmed.
• File the release paperwork with the batch record. Keeping the batch record complete is what makes a later appearance or performance question traceable.

Grade Selection & Substitution

Three codes, one active. TL-110 is supplied as the diol itself, with no carrier. TL-110D and TL-110BC deliver the same active carried in solvent. The wetting and foam behaviour comes from the same molecule in all three, so what decides the choice is the carrier and what your formula can accept.

When the carrier-free grade is the right one. Choose TL-110 where the mill base has to stay solvent-free: a VOC limit, an odour requirement, a water-only ink or adhesive, or a substrate and print head that solvent would attack. It is also the simpler choice when the pigment wets out readily and the only remaining job is holding viscosity and foam down in an aqueous system.

When a solvent-carried grade earns its place. If the active has to be introduced into a heavily filled or strongly polar system where a carrier helps distribution, or if the plant already handles solvent in the mill base and has the ventilation and equipment for it, one of the carried grades is the practical route. Because the active is the same, moving between grades rarely means re-qualifying wetting performance; it does mean re-checking how the carrier behaves in the rest of the package.

Two carried grades, confirmed per system. TL-110D and TL-110BC both supply the active in solvent. Which one fits depends on the binder, the substrate and the drying regime in your plant, so we confirm it against the system you describe rather than picking one from the code alone. Send the pigment, binder and mill details and the answer comes back specific to that combination.

What it replaces, and what it does not. This defoaming and wetting agent takes the place of the wetting additive at the grind together with the separate defoamer dosed at the same point; that is where the second drum and the second weighing step disappear. It is not a drop-in replacement for a resin-based dispersant in a mill base built around resin-stabilised pigment: where the formula depends on that resin dispersant, keep it and use this water based additive for the wetting and foam job.

Order by the code you have qualified. Quote the grade, the quantity and the system it goes into. If you are still choosing, ask for a lab sample of the grade you are leaning towards and run a short ladder against your current additive before the first bulk order, then review the result with our technical team.

Industrial Applications and Operational Benefits

The TL-110 series is used across architectural, automotive, industrial and wood coatings, where it improves flow, finish quality and pigment colour development. Because it works both as a wetting agent and as an industrial defoamer additive, it can be integrated into a wide range of waterborne systems, including inkjet inks and silicon wafer cutting fluids. On the production line, the series helps keep runs cleaner and more efficient by reducing the downtime caused by foam-related defects, while supporting the durability and surface appearance of the finished product.

Technical Support & Model Matching

Choosing the right match is where most sourcing decisions stall. As a trading supplier, we keep one point of contact from first enquiry to after-sales: tell us what you are making and the conditions you work under, and we shortlist the closest matches from our supplier network, compare specifications and arrange samples before you commit to a bulk order. If something does not behave as expected, we work with the supplying partner on the cause and a practical fix, and stay with the case until it is settled. Email, WeChat or WhatsApp enquiries get a reply within 24 hours.

FAQ