Gloss Tester | What Are the Factors that Determine the Paint Gloss?

1. The concept of paint gloss

The paint surface gloss refers to the ratio or intensity of the paint coating surface reflected light under the certain illuminance and certain angle of incident light. The greater the ratio or intensity of light reflected by the coating, the higher the paint gloss coating. 
       There are three main methods for measuring the gloss of paint coating surfaces. They are the visual method, the template control method, and the photometer method. The first two methods are subjective, and the measurement will not be accurate enough.

2. Determinants of paint gloss

• The particle size of the pigment in the paint and its dispersion in the base material will affect the paint gloss film. The finer the pigment fineness, the better the dispersion uniformity in the base material, which helps to form a smooth paint film.

• The Yanji ratio in the paint has an influence on the paint gloss film. The pigment particles in the paint film weaken the specular reflection and the gloss gradually decreases with the increase of the pigment volume concentration (P.V.C).

• When the Yanji ratio is fixed, the greater the oil absorption of the pigment, the lower the gloss.

• The degree of light absorption and reflection of different colors of pigments are different. Black paint completely absorbs light and white paint completely reflects light, black paint shows higher gloss than white paint.

• The gloss of the surface of the paint film not only depends on the smoothness and roughness of the surface of the paint film, but also the angle of incidence of light will affect the gloss.

• The standard board is the main benchmark for measuring and calculating the paint gloss film, which will directly affect the accuracy of the gloss determination of the sample, so it should be carefully preserved to prevent surface damage.

3. Gloss testerdetects the paint gloss

Many high-efficiency gloss testers have been launched on the market. The Linshang paint gloss tester LS191 is one of the most representative ones. Compared with other gloss testers, the Linshang paint gloss tester LS191 does not require any buttons or any extra operations during testing. Just place the instrument on the material to be tested and the test data will be displayed immediately. The LS191 gloss tester has a counting function to record the current test data and automatically calculate the maximum value, minimum value, average value and standard deviation value. The smaller the standard deviation value, the more uniform the paint surface gloss. Relying on the test ability of the gloss tester LS191, the work efficiency of many construction workers has been greatly improved.