In the road marking paint industry, one of the most common phrases you hear is this:
“The resin is acrylic, so there’s no problem.”
However, the reality in the field is very different. Even paints produced with the same type of resin can show dramatic performance differences within just a few months. A line that looks perfect at first application may soon lose its ability to hold glass beads—and fading follows shortly after.
This situation is often attributed to application errors, weather conditions, or the quality of the glass beads. But in most cases, the root cause lies much further upstream: the resin itself.
Not the Resin Type, but the Resin’s Character Matters
Terms like “acrylic,” “alkyd,” or “hydrocarbon resin” only indicate which family a resin belongs to. What truly defines field performance are factors such as:
- The resin’s production process
- Molecular weight and its distribution
- Functional group structure
- Compatibility with other raw materials
For this reason, two resins of the same type can behave completely differently—even within the same formulation.
If a paint performs perfectly in the first month but fails later, the issue is often not poor application, but the delayed consequence of an incorrect or insufficient resin selection.
Why Does the Same Resin Type Perform Differently Across Countries?
This is a common situation in the industry:
A resin that works flawlessly in one country causes serious performance issues in another.
The main reasons include:
- The origin of the resin’s raw materials
- Purity of the monomers used in production
- Level of polymerization control
- Batch-to-batch consistency
The difference between Iranian, Chinese, and European-origin resins is not just price. Small variations in molecular structure can lead to major differences once the paint comes into contact with asphalt.
These differences rarely show up in laboratory tests—they reveal themselves over time, in real traffic conditions.
Resin–Pigment Incompatibility: Field Defects That Damage Reputation
When a paint fails to retain glass beads, the glass beads themselves are often blamed. In reality, resin–pigment incompatibility can lead to:
- Insufficient embedding of glass beads into the paint film
- A surface film that becomes too closed and rigid
- Rapid loss of retroreflectivity
and many other issues.
These issues are usually invisible at the time of application. After a few months—especially under heavy traffic—the line appears “dead” and non-reflective. For manufacturers, this translates directly into loss of credibility in the field.
Why Cheap Resin Becomes Expensive
Resin cost is often one of the first items considered in road marking paint production. Yet low-cost resins typically result in:
- Shorter service life of the paint film
- More frequent maintenance and repainting
- End-user dissatisfaction
What seems like a cost-saving decision in the short term often turns into brand damage and market loss in the medium term.
Many cases where “we produced the same paint, but this time it didn’t work” can be traced back to inconsistencies in resin quality.
Resin Selection Is the Backbone of the Formulation
Resin is the structural backbone on which pigments, fillers, and additives rely. A wrong resin choice will limit performance no matter how:
- High-quality the pigment is
- Correct the application process may be
For this reason, resin is not just another formulation component—
it is the character-defining element.
The ROADCHEM Perspective
At ROADCHEM, we treat resin not merely as a raw material, but as a technical element that defines field behavior. One example developed with this perspective is RCH 585.
RCH 585 is a methyl methacrylate-based, solvent-free resin designed for use in two-component systems. Such resins are not intended for every application, but for specific scenarios with clearly defined performance expectations.
The key issue here is not product preference, but using the right resin in the right application.
A Final Note from ROADCHEM Academy
Problems in road marking paints usually do not appear on day one.
They emerge months later.
And most of these problems begin not with application—but with resin selection.
We will cover the key factors that determine resin performance and how to approach proper resin selection in detail in our next article:
👉Road Marking Paint Resin Selection: The Often Overlooked Factors That Define Performance