Leveling agents and wetting agents are commonly used functional additives in coatings, inks, adhesives, and other fields. They each have their own focus on improving coating performance. Let's take a brief look at the respective advantages of leveling agents and wetting agents.

Leveling agents reduce the surface tension of coatings, promote uniform flow of coatings before curing, reduce defects such as brush marks, orange peel, and shrinkage, improve surface flatness, and reduce surface defects. They are particularly suitable for high viscosity systems (such as UV coatings and powder coatings) and can effectively eliminate unevenness caused by poor flowability. By uniformly forming a film, the light reflection performance of the coating can be enhanced, especially for high gloss coatings.

Wetting agents help coatings penetrate into porous or low surface energy substrates (such as plastics, metals, and wood) by significantly reducing the contact angle between the liquid and the substrate, avoiding shrinkage and fisheye. By improving the wettability of the substrate and enhancing the contact area between the coating and the substrate, adhesion can be improved. In pigment dispersion, wetting agents can accelerate pigment wetting, prevent agglomeration, and adapt to low surface energy substrates.   

Through reasonable selection, leveling agents and wetting agents can complement and optimize coating performance. Of course, when using them, we need to conduct targeted testing based on the system formula and substrate characteristics to maximize their respective advantages.