Super Therm® Color Tinting Chart
One of the big questions we are asked is can Super Therm® be tinted or colored. Super Therm® is egg shell white with a Total Solar Rating of rating of 96.1 (stops heat) and Solar Reflective Index rating of 104 (reflects light) and BTU rating of 99.5% (Blocks infrared), it can be tinted with water base pigments to light colours by your local paint store. You will have the local swatches to select the colors of your choice.
IMPORTANT: Any tints and darker colors will cause a reduction in solar heat performance which is then influenced by the color and the environment. The chart below is a color guide to the reduction of efficiently with tints applied to Super Therm®.
Painting over Super Therm® with a dark color can see an increase of heat load onto the substrate as darker colours absorb more light and heat therefore Super Therm® has to work harder to reduce that heat load.
If a dark color is desired then the recommendation is to double the mils to 500 microns DFT and topcoat with the dark colour. At least this way the ceramics will throw the absorbed heat back into the topcoat. Even with a pastel colour it’s better to topcoat but then you only need 250 microns DFT of Super Therm®
Super Therm® was designed and its technology is built upon providing the heat block protection effectiveness on a single coat, with minimum of 10 dry mils or 250 microns thickness. At least two coats are required if there is an intent on overcoating Super Therm® with another paint product, which is usually a particular colour over the top of the Super Therm® for decoration. The extra thickness is required because the coloured paint applied over the top of the Super Therm® will catch and hold heat. The guide below was tested in the SPI Coatings lab with a spectroscopic light gauge to check reflectance. They have not been tested with ASTM Standards.
