Advantages
1. Using water as a solvent saves a large amount of resources; eliminates the fire hazard during construction; reduces air pollution; only uses a small amount of low-toxicity alcohol ether organic solvents, improving working environment conditions. Generally, the organic solvent content (of the paint) in water-based coatings is between 5% and 15%, while that in cathodic electrocoating has been reduced to below 1.2%, significantly improving the effect of pollution reduction and resource saving.
　　2. Water-based coatings can be directly applied and constructed on wet surfaces and in humid environments; they have good adaptability to material surfaces and strong coating adhesion.
　　3. Coating tools can be cleaned with water, greatly reducing the consumption of cleaning solvents and effectively reducing harm to construction personnel.
　　4. The electrophoretic coating is uniform and smooth. It has good leveling properties; the inner cavity, welds, corners, and edges can all be coated with a certain thickness of coating, providing good protection; the electrophoretic coating has the best corrosion resistance, and the salt spray resistance of thick-film cathodic electrocoating can reach up to 1200h.

Basic Understanding
Paints have become deeply ingrained in consumers' minds, but many consumers still know very little about paints, including some paint shop owners who have been selling paint for over a decade and are not very aware of the hazards of paint. Paint can only be used after one month of application, consumers think that the paint is non-toxic at this time, but this is wrong, the lack of irritating smell is only because formaldehyde has volatilized to a level acceptable to the human body, while the benzene, toluene, and free TDI contained in the paint curing agent and thinner are still volatilizing, these things will take at least decades to completely volatilize, and these aromatic hydrocarbons have a certain impact on the intellectual development of infants, children, and unborn children.

Development Stages
Generally speaking, water-based paint technology has mainly gone through the following three stages:
The first generation of water-based paints uses acrylic acid as the main raw material, and its advantages are good water resistance and weather resistance. Its disadvantages are that its comprehensive performance is generally low, its chemical properties are relatively low (for example, poor alcohol and alkali resistance), and its hardness and wear resistance are relatively low, which is why most people think that water-based paints are not good.

The second generation of water-based paints uses a composite of acrylic acid and water-based polyurethane as the main raw material, not only inheriting the advantages of the first generation of acrylic products, such as good weather resistance and construction tolerance, but also improving the hardness of water-based paints, but the chemical properties are still relatively low, currently only a few companies in China can produce them, and they are mid-range products among water-based paints.

The third generation of water-based paints uses acrylic-modified water-based polyurethane as the main raw material. Based on the second generation of water-based paint products, it has greatly improved the comprehensive performance of the products. The pencil hardness test can reach more than 2H, fully meeting daily needs; the wear resistance even exceeds that of oil-based paints, and there are obvious advantages in service life and color matching; more importantly, the chemical properties are stable, and the alcohol and alkali resistance is greatly enhanced compared to the previous two, making it a high-end product among water-based paints, and this technology is monopolized by a few manufacturers at home and abroad.

Although water-based paints have advantages such as environmentally friendly paint film effects, single-component water-based paints still have a certain gap with two-component oil-based paints in terms of hardness and high-temperature resistance. For example, when used on dining tables and floors, their performance shortcomings are easily apparent. This functional defect has led to the development of water-based paints.

Development Direction
With the pressure of environmental protection policies and the continuous improvement of consumers' environmental awareness; especially with the introduction of VOC emission limit standards in provinces and cities across the country, encouraging the use of non-solvent coatings, has brought opportunities for the development of water-based paints and other environmentally friendly coatings. Although traditional coatings still occupy a large market share, water-based paints are a green industry and the future direction of paint development, and domestic leading water-based paint companies are emerging.

The development of water-based coatings and their market share have been increasing year by year, and this trend is accelerating. Some companies have realized the vast market potential of water-based paints and are actively developing, entering, and expanding the water-based paint market.

Although water-based coatings are superior to traditional oil paints in terms of environmental protection performance, in terms of physical properties, water-based coating products have shortcomings such as difficult construction, poor water resistance, easy peeling, poor fullness, and poor hardness. Oil paints, due to their strong hardness, high film fullness, and wide construction tolerance, are still the preferred coatings for many people during decoration. Only when the defects in physical properties are solved, or even surpassed traditional oil paints, will consumers be more proactive in choosing to use water-based coatings. Simply catering to consumers in terms of environmental protection performance, while failing to meet consumers' needs in construction technology and decorative effects, the market for water-based coatings will still be difficult to open. This requires water-based paint manufacturers to make technological innovations in the performance of water-based paints.

In addition, due to factors such as performance and technology, the construction tolerance of water-based coatings is far worse than that of oil-based wood coatings, often resulting in unsatisfactory final film effects. For consumers, what they actually buy is not the coating, but the coating effect after use. The saying "three points coating, seven points coating" is more appropriate for water-based coatings. To achieve the same level of coating effect as oil-based wood coatings, this requires water-based coating companies to pay more attention to coating construction technology and attach great importance to the operation training of construction personnel. Dealers should consciously improve their professional knowledge and construction technology of water-based paints, ensure that water-based coatings achieve high-quality coating effects after construction, and be able to recommend and introduce the superiority of water-based paints in health and environmental protection to consumers.