TTQ B4U
Well-known member
- Jan 20, 2016
- 5,504
- 70
Not entirely accurate. I manufacture optical lenses and fillers such as blacklight have a similar purpose to Antireflective coatings on glass, although AR Coatings are far far more complex. The point is however one of the key points is that all polishing whether its on optical lenses or paint with something like SF3500/4500 leave microscopic lines that need filled in to produce the highest level of light transmittance. Do they look good without such coatings/fillers, sure. Cars still look shiny and people will see better however, they are far from perfect in terms of light transmittance. More is needed to achieve that.
In the case of optics and lenses light passes through ot the eye whereas, in the case of paint, clearcoats and sealants and coatings, the same principle applies as light needs to pass through and reflect back off the underlying paint. The greatest reflection is achieved when light can pass straight through and reflect straight back. Although never perfect as in lenses the material and thickness plays a factor, as does the clear coat and other coatings on the paint.
That's one of the reasons black looks so darn nice when any of the newer Nano-Ceramic Coatings are applied and why in some instances folks, especially dark blue metallic colors or like, will state their cars color appears darker. That's because the surface imperfections are leveled out and thus more light is passing straight through thus allowing the color to show through better vs stray reflections being bounced out in all directions. Waxes and sealers will "help" but never quite fill in the imperfections and in some instances can cause them to show through even more. That's why holograms from poor buffer usage aren't hidden by waxes but rather often stand out even more.
Similarly on a persons ophthalmic glasses a great AR and matching substrate, etc. will leave the appearance of them not even having lenses in their glasses. Generally speaking average lenses will reflect back upwards of 9-12% of the light hitting them, whereas a properly coated lens will may only reflect 1-2% max.