Achievement of optimal aluminum flake orientation by the use of special cubic experimental design

In the present investigation, attempts were made to predict the effect of variations in a coating's composition on aluminum flake orientation by means of a special cubic experimental design. The results showed that there seems to be a critical concentration of aluminum flake, above which the surface parallel orientations of these flakes as well as the mechanical properties of the free coatings' film begin to decrease. Further analysis of the results showed that for a given cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB) resin content, a linear dependency was found to exist between the orientation attribute (i.e. lambda) and the mechanical attribute (i.e. the Young's modulus). Furthermore, the relation ship between the appearance attribute (i.e. the flop-index) and the orientation attribute was best represented by a logarithmic function. (c) 2006 Published by Elsevier B.V.