The Birth of Acrylic Latex Paints

Paint is made of three main ingredients: pigment, a binder (or resin), and a liquid (or vehicle). Pigments give paints their color. Binders are the "sticky" solids that hold everything together. And, traditional paint vehicles were oils. Latex paints, introduced after WWII, were the first paints to use water as the liquid. Latex paints dried quicker, were easier to clean up, and weren't flammable like oil-based paints. These were appealing qualities to the new "do-it-yourself" homeowner in the post-war housing boom of the 1950s.

Early latex paints used rubber-based binders. But binders didn't have to be made of rubber, and Rohm and Haas looked for ways to create better binders from acrylics. After much trial and error in cooperation with paint manufacturers like Glidden, Sherwin-Williams, and Benjamin Moore, they succeeded with, Rhoplex AC-33, an acrylic-emulsion paint binder. Rhoplex AC-33 was introduced to the paint industry in 1953 for use in making the first commercial acrylic water-based paints.

Of course, the introduction was not easy. Rohm and Haas had to demonstrate to its customers the advantages of Rhoplex, which included greater durability and smoothness of application. But after several years in the trenches, working with the customers, solving technical problems, and making new formulation after new formulation, acrylic-emulsion paint binders finally became a permanent fixture in the paint industry.

By 1973, paints made from acrylic emulsions were leading the interior semi-gloss market in the United States and five years later had essentially replaced oil-based exterior paints.

Hollow Spheres

A paint's opacity is its ability to keep light from passing through. A high-opacity paint will hide what it's covering well, requiring fewer coats. The traditional paint opacifier was titanium dioxide, and it was very expensive. Rohm and Haas joined the race in the 1970s to mimic the effects of titanium dioxide with a more economic technology. Eight years in the making, Rohm and Haas introduced its revolutionary "hollow sphere" technology to the paint industry in 1982. The product, named Ropaque, worked by trapping tiny air voids in polymer film. These voids, or hollow spheres, scatter light, preventing it from passing through. Ropaque enabled paint manufacturers to formulate their paints with less pigment and binder without compromising performance.

The Paint Quality Institute

By 1989 Rohm and Haas paint ingredients were in 85% of the exterior acrylic paints sold in the United States. But the question, "Why choose acrylic paints, which often cost more, over other types of paints?" was still on consumers' minds. Rohm and Haas paint ingredients produce very high quality paints, which cost a little more but are more cost-effective in the long run because they last longer and look better.

Rohm and Haas wanted to work with its customers — paint manufacturers like Glidden and Sherwin-Williams — as well as with consumers, to educate them about the advantages and superior quality of acrylic paints. To this end, the Rohm and Haas Paint Quality Institute was created to educate consumers on the acrylic advantage and the importance of using quality paints.