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For brilliant results: silicones in automotive care
Polished paintwork, shiny windows, sparkling wheel rims: a clean car makes a good impression and retains its value for many years. Nowadays, you are spoiled for choice when it comes to care products. But as varied as all these products may be, many of them have one thing in common: their action is down to our silicones.
Show me your car and I’ll tell you who you are: regular trips to the car wash have become a matter of course for many people. Accordingly, the global automotive care industry is growing steadily – as is the range of cleaning and care products for professional users and end customers.
Each care agent fulfills a special purpose:
Silicones are used in both waxes and polishes
Automotive care products are highly complex formulations. And our silicones play a key part in many of them. Although silicones only make up a small part of the formulation, they give the end products their very special properties.
WACKER can offer you an extensive portfolio of silicones for the manufacture of liquid, creamy or wax-like car cleaning and care products that come with a variety of properties:
The different ways in which these product groups take effect are due to their chemical structure. Watch our video to find out more about the structures, properties and resulting benefits of different automotive care products:
Whether inside or out: silicone-based care products are effective
Paint protection
Silicone waxes afford long-lasting, dirt-repellent protection of paintwork and automotive trims
Water-repellent glass sealing
Rain- and water-repellent window sealing: formulated with organofunctional silicone fluid
Tire care
Dirt-repellent care product for shiny tires: made with highly viscous silicone fluids or emulsions
Cleaning that saves energy and water
Save energy and water: wash-and-wax agents and/or rinse-off agents containing organofunctional silicones
Water-repellent upholstery care
Upholstery and leather care with excellent water repellency and color enhancement: formulated with organofunctional silicone fluids/emulsions
Antimisting agents
Hydrophilic silicone fluids used in antimisting agents create an invisible, highly effective film on glass surfaces
Textile impregnation –
water-repellency effect
LIOSIL® HC 603 E imparts a durable, hydrophobic coating to textile substrates, resulting in pronounced water beading and runoff. The treatment is easy to apply, provides immediate performance benefits, and enables straightforward assessment of water repellency.
Hydrophobic surface coatings –
water- and dirt-repellency effect
Silicone wax WACKER® W 23 and the silicone wax emulsion WACKER® E 32 provide a long-lasting, water-repellent finish to surfaces that helps water and dirt bead up and roll off easily, all while preserving the surface’s gloss. The effect is durable and simple to test.
Hydrophilic surface treatment –
anti-fogging effect
WACKER® L 053 reduces surface fogging, ensuring a clear view that can be easily demonstrated in practice.
How to find the right silicone for your car care product
Whether you’re looking for a fresh glossy look or new depth of color, easy handling or lasting water repellency, or need to look after paintwork, leather or plastics: every automotive care product has specific properties. Choosing the right silicone will depend on the area of application and desired effect.
Our WACKER® AK silicone fluids are linear polydimethylsiloxanes with a viscosity between 0.65 mm2 s-1 and 1,000,000 mm2 s-1. As our most versatile products, they combine a range of benefits: from excellent lubricating properties through to gloss, color depth and improved durability.
Our organofunctional silicone fluids, including amino- and polyether-functional siloxanes, exhibit excellent adhesion, gloss and resistance to cleaning agents.
Key properties of our silicone waxes are their exceptional weathering resistance, durability and resistance to cleaning agents – even at low dosages.
Silicone resin blends combine the advantages of resins and silicone fluids and provide enhanced water-repellent properties, durability and resistance to cleaning agents.
Silicone emulsions support sustainable, environmentally sound formulations that provide excellent storage, pumping and dilution stability. Thanks to their aqueous dosage form, they are easy to handle and process.
Our new guidelines simplify your choice: just select the area of application and the desired effect to find the right silicone product for your formulations in no time at all. Click on the link to view or download our guidelines.
Any questions? Talk to our experts!
Putting automotive care products to the test
To ensure that automotive care products really do deliver what they promise, we put them through their paces at our technical competence centers. We use well-proven methods to ensure that manufacturers find the perfect formulation – and end customers can enjoy brilliant results.
Contact angle measurement
How does rainwater bead off the paint and windows? The effect is determined on the basis of the contact angle of a drop of water on a treated surface. At a contact angle of > 90°, the surface tends to be hydrophobic (water-repellent); at a contact angle of < 90°, the surface tends to be hydrophilic (i.e. has an affinity for water).
Long-term contact angle measurement
How long does water repellency last? This is determined by measuring the contact angle of a drop of water on a test surface, spraying the surface for 15 minutes in our spraying chambers and then remeasuring the contact angle. We repeat this process several times. Silicone waxes deliver the best results.
Slip angle measurement
How quickly does water bead off paint and windows? The effect is demonstrated by applying a drop of water to a test surface. The inclination of the test panel is then continuously increased until the droplet runs down. The lower the slip angle, the higher the water repellency of the surface.
Gloss measurement
Does a glossy appearance live up to its promise? A digital glossmeter can be used to objectively determine the gloss of paintwork etc. It measures the reflection of a beam of light that falls on the surface. Most silicones achieve extremely high gloss values in polishes.
Stress crack test
What is good for a coat of paint is not necessarily good for plastic. We perform this test to rule out stress cracks: a plastic test piece (e.g. made of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), polypropylene (PP) or polycarbonate (PC)) is wetted with the test product and loaded with a weight. At the same time, the temperature is increased to as much as 50 °C. The test piece is then checked for cracks.
Weathering test
Does a care product protect the paintwork from wind and weather over the long term? We can determine whether this is the case or not at our outdoor weathering facility in Burghausen, where we test coated automotive parts under real weather conditions in long-term tests.
Handling
The best polish is worth nothing if it isn’t easy to spread. Even the most effective cleaning agent won’t sell if it leaves an unsightly film of grease behind. We perform extensive tests to check the ease of use – for example, when the polish is applied, spread and washed off.
Want to know more about our silicones for automotive care products?
Visit our product portal, where you will find further information on our silicone fluids, resins and waxes for a wide range of automotive care products.
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