Waterborne top coat compositions, processes for preparing such compositions, and methods for forming top coats on substrates are provided. In an embodiment, a waterborne top coat composition includes water, pigment(s) and resin solids. The resin solids comprise about 60 to 100 wt. % of binder solids and 0 to about 40 wt. % of crosslinker solids, the binder solids comprising about 1 to about 40 wt. % of an acrylic/(meth)acryl copolymer hybrid binder, and about 60 to about 99 wt. % of one or more additional binders, the sum of the respective wt. % in each case equaling 100 wt. %.

A radiation-curable composition includes at least one monofunctional monomer and/or at least one multifunctional monomer, at least one photoinitiator compound, and at least one matting agent, wherein the at least one matting agent is at least one aminoplast resin. Methods of producing the radiation-curable composition, methods of coating a substrate with the radiation-curable composition, and substrates coated with the radiation-cured composition are also disclosed.

An electrostatic powder coating method includes spraying a charged powder coating material including powder particles which contain a thermosetting resin and a thermosetting agent to electrostatically attach the powder coating material to an object to be coated, and heating the powder coating material which is electrostatically attached to the object to be coated to thereby form a coating film, wherein a volume average particle diameter Dc of the powder particles of the powder coating material which is electrostatically attached to the object to be coated and a volume average particle diameter Do of the powder particles of the powder coating material before being sprayed satisfy a relationship of Expression: Do0.80DcDo1.20.

A method of forming a multilayer coating on a substrate is provided. The multilayer coating exhibits reduced strike-in and mottling. The method includes the steps of providing the substrate including a primer disposed thereon, applying a basecoat composition on the primer, applying a clearcoat composition on the basecoat composition, and curing the basecoat composition and the clearcoat composition to form the multilayer coating on the substrate. The basecoat composition includes a film forming resin, a pigment, and about 5% to about 75% by weight on binder of a cyclic lactone modified branched acrylic polymer having a hydroxyl monomer content of about 1% to 65% by weight, all or part of which has been reacted with a cyclic lactone, and having a weight average molecular weight (Mw) of about 10,000 to about 150,000 g/mol.

A coating method for forming a laminated coating film including: preparing a thermosetting coating material as a lower layer-coating material, an intermediate layer-coating material, and as an upper layer-coating material; forming an uncured laminated coating film by applying the lower layer-coating, the intermediate layer-coating, and the upper layer-coating materials on the base material using a wet-on-wet technique; and simultaneously curing the lower layer-coating, the intermediate layer-coating, and upper layer-coating materials by baking the uncured laminated coating film. In the preparation step, the lower layer-coating, the intermediate layer-coating, and the upper layer-coating materials are selected so a sum of an absolute value of a difference in shrinkage ratio between the lower layer-coating and the intermediate layer-coating materials and an absolute value of a difference in shrinkage ratio between the intermediate layer-coating and the upper layer-coating materials at the late stage of the baking is 3.0% or smaller.

A coating method for forming a laminated coating film including a lower layer formed on a base material and an upper layer formed on the lower layer including: preparing a thermosetting coating material as a lower layer-coating material and preparing a thermosetting coating material as an upper layer-coating material; forming an uncured laminated coating film by applying the lower layer-coating material and the upper layer-coating material on the base material using a wet-on-wet technique; and simultaneously curing the lower layer-coating material and the upper layer-coating material by baking the uncured laminated coating film. In the preparation step, the lower layer-coating material and the upper layer-coating material are selected so that an absolute value of a difference in shrinkage ratio between the lower layer and the upper layer coating materials is 2.0% or smaller at a late stage of the baking step.

The present invention provides water-based energy curable compositions that are useful as primers on metallized substrates. The compositions comprise energy-curable monomers and oligomers, inert polyurethane dispersions, and phosphoric acid. The compositions exhibit improved adhesion to metallized substrates, compared to compositions that do not contain phosphoric acid. In addition, the compositions provide improved adhesion to overprinted energy-curable inks when the compositions of the invention are used as primers on metallized substrates.

A decorative sheet includes a primary film layer and a surface protection layer provided on one surface of the primary film layer. The surface protection layer has, in its surface, a ridged portion protruding in a ridged pattern to form an irregular shape. The irregular shape of the surface protection layer has RSm/Ra within the range of 10 or greater and 300 or smaller. The surface protection layer includes an ionizing radiation-curable resin as a main material. The ionizing radiation-curable resin is a trifunctional acrylic resin with the main component having a repeating structure. The repeating structure is any of an ethylene oxide structure, a propylene oxide structure, and an -caprolactone structure. The single-bonded carbon ratio in the main component of the ionizing radiation-curable resin falls within the range of 0.725 or greater and 0.955 or smaller.

A decorative sheet includes: a primary film layer; and a surface protective layer, wherein the surface protective layer has a gloss level of 15 or less, the surface protective layer includes a ridged portion projecting in a ridged pattern from a surface of the surface protective layer to form an uneven shape on the surface, the surface protective layer contains an ionizing radiation-curable resin as a main material, the ionizing radiation-curable resin contains, as a main component, a tetrafunctional acrylic resin having a repeating structure, the number of repetitions of the repeating structure is 12 or more, a content of vinyl groups contained in the ionizing radiation-curable resin is 20% or less relative to carbonyl groups contained in the ionizing radiation-curable resin, and the uneven shape of the surface protective layer (5) has RSm/Ra in a range of 10 or greater and 300 or less.

A method of photografting organic molecules to a metal oxide comprising: (a) contacting a substrate having a metal oxide layer on a surface thereof with an acrylate, derivative thereof or a photolabile functional group; and (b) exposing the metal oxide layer and the acrylate, derivative thereof or photolabile group to UV or visible radiation to form covalent bonds between the metal oxide and the acrylate, the derivative thereof or the photolabile.