A new method for evaluating water retention and dewatering behavior of coating colors by base paper is proposed by developing an apparatus to measure the amount of absorbed liquid as a function of time. The device is composed of an upper chamber containing coating color and a lower chamber containing water, the two being separated by a flexible plastic foil. The water in lower chamber is connected to a measuring glass capillary. The paper sample was attached to a plastic plate by double sided-sticking tape and was placed on the filter surface at the top of the upper chamber. Dewatering from coating color was measured by tracing the movement of meniscus in the capillary with automatic optical detector. The movement of meniscus was converted to the amount of dewatering, which was then analyzed by personal computer. The result of this method was compared with those of the conductivity method. The features of dewatering curve were dependent on the type and particle size of pigments, the type and amount of soluble binders.Dewatering behavior of coating color was found to be sensitive to dispersion state of the pigment and pH of the color. Thus the present method proved to be effective for directly and automatically evaluate dewatering phenomena of coating color by base paper. This method is superior to the conductivity method because of higher reproducibility and directness of the measurement, thus providing direct and useful information about water retention mechanism of coating colors.
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