Orange peel is a common surface defect seen when waterborne coating formulations have poor flow and leveling. Based on extensive research conducted with numerous waterborne formulations, Air Products has developed EnviroGem® AE surfactants, which not only reduce orange peel but can improve both gloss and flow and leveling properties in industrial maintenance coatings and automotive basecoats and primers.

These benefits can be quantified by using the wave-scan plus instrument (BYK-Gardner) to analyze orange peel according to structure size—simulating human visual perception of the waviness at 12 inches and 8 feet. As shown in the figure below, for a silver base coat formulation, EnviroGem AE surfactants, such as EnviroGem AE03 achieve excellent flow and leveling as evidenced by the very low levels of waviness detected at both short (0.1–1 mm) and long (1–30 mm) instrument wavelengths.