The effective ingredients of leveling agents can significantly reduce the surface tension of coatings, allowing them to be more evenly distributed on the substrate during the coating process. This helps to reduce unevenness such as flow marks and orange peel caused by uneven surface tension. The surface tension gradient is one of the main reasons for uneven coating. Leveling agents eliminate the tension gradient on the surface of coatings, making the surface tension of coatings in different areas tend to be consistent, thereby avoiding defects such as shrinkage and fisheye in coatings and improving the flatness of coatings. Leveling agents can enhance the wettability of coatings on substrates, allowing coatings to better penetrate into the fine pores on the surface of substrates. This helps to reduce issues such as pinholes and shrinkage caused by insufficient substrate wetting, further improving the flatness of the coating. Leveling agents can also adjust the viscosity of coatings to a certain extent, maintaining appropriate fluidity during the coating process. Appropriate fluidity helps the coating to spread evenly on the substrate, reducing unevenness such as brush marks and roller marks caused by excessive viscosity.

By reducing the surface tension of the coating and promoting surface wetting, leveling agents can form a smoother coating surface during the drying and film-forming process of the coating. A smooth surface can reduce light scattering, resulting in a higher glossiness of the coating. Leveling agents can reduce defects such as shrinkage, fish eyes, and pinholes on the coating surface, making the coating surface smoother. The reduction of these defects helps to improve the glossiness of the coating, making the surface of the coating brighter and more dazzling. As mentioned earlier, leveling agents homogenize the surface tension of coatings by eliminating surface tension gradients. This uniformity helps the coating form a uniform film layer during the drying process, thereby further enhancing the glossiness of the coating. Some leveling agents can also form a dense molecular layer on the surface of the coating, making the molecular arrangement on the coating surface more compact. This tight arrangement helps to reduce light scattering and reflection losses, and improve the glossiness and brightness of the coating.

In summary, leveling agents work together to significantly improve the smoothness and gloss of coatings by reducing surface tension, eliminating surface tension gradients, promoting surface wetting, adjusting coating viscosity, and eliminating surface defects. This is of great significance for improving the overall performance and effectiveness of coatings.