Annual question about waterborne lacquer

[Quickstep192]

I had been asking about who uses waterborne finishes every year or so. It seemed like finishes we're evloving quickly and it seemed like the perfect product was always just a month away. It seemed like every month or so a new product came along promising to solve the problems associated with the previous generation. And, in many cases, the new product solved most of the old problems, but usually didn't solve all of them and sometimes introduced new problems. It seems like things have slowed in the past year. It seems as though the products that were the latest, greatest thing a year ago haven't been replaced (yet).

So, I'll ask my annual question; is anyone using a waterborne as their "go to" finish? If so, what is the current favorite product?

[B. Howard]

Until new resins are developed that readily dissolve in water or at least a new way of suspending them in an aqueous solution are developed lots of the problems will remain. There is a distillation process used to transition the resins to a glycol based solvent vehicle to make it compatible with water. This process induces a bit of polymerization prior to the coating actually being applied and beginning to "dry" naturally and this is the genesis of most of the issues. While every manufacturer hypes their new WB coating system as the latest and greatest to get you to buy some in reality the chemistry at the base of it all is and has been the same for 50 years or more.