History Writable-Erasable Paint and Markers

Writable-Erasable Walls/Wall Coatings/Dry Erase Paint Walls and Markers

The blackboard placed on a wall can be attributed to Scotland’s James Pillans, Headmaster of the Old High School of Edinburgh. Pillains’ reportedly built a composite slate wall out of students’ individual slates so he could teach geography. By 1801, George Baron, an instructor at West Point Military Academy used blackboards to teach math. Over the next half century, blackboards utilizing chalk as markers became a fixture on the walls of just about every school room in America.

The grease pencil, wax pencil or china marker was the first writable-erasable marker made of hardened colored wax and was used to mark non-porous coated surfaces for identification, inspection and communication. The grease pencil was being commonly used in 1916 when it was used to mark the map of the Sykes-Picot Agreement.

Photographic film and ceramic coated steel panels were used in the 1950s and 1960s as the first writable and erasable surfaces (white boards) for communicating. In the 1970s aliphatic polyurethane coated steel, aluminum and fiberglass substrates were used as writable and erasable surfaces for communication and reference. In the early 1970s Thomas Brothers Maps of Los Angeles introduced wall maps with non-porous sealed surfaces so grease pencils and the soon to be introduced dry erase markers could be used to identify locations. In 1975 the first dry erase ink marker was patented and sold by Pilot Pen for use on writable and erasable surfaces replacing the grease pencil in popularity in the 1980s and 1990s.

White-boards, while developed in the 1950s and 1960s gained popularity in the 1980s as health concerns developed with regards to traditional chalk boards (blackboard). In the late 1980s wall covering films were produced resulting in the first commercially available system to make walls writable and erasable with dry erase markers.

The first polysiloxane hybrid coating was introduced and patented by Ameron Performance Coatings in January of 1994. The product called PSX 700 was designed and originally introduced to be an industrial performance coating for metal and concrete substrates. The polysiloxane coating resulted in a non-porous, stain resistant very cleanable surface that demonstrated excellent writable-erasable properties with both grease pencils and dry erase markers.

In 1996 Ameron, working with Southern California Edison and Bechtel Engineers specified and applied the polysiloxane coating on the interior walls, operations desks and control consoles in the control room of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in southern California resulting in writable-erasable surfaces where both grease pencils and dry erase markers could be used.

In the late 1990s MP3.com coated the walls of their San Diego offices with an aliphatic polyurethane to create writable-erasable wall surfaces. Frazee Paint of San Diego sold the aliphatic polyurethane and MC McMurray Painting applied the product to the walls of the MP3.com offices and conference room.

These documented applications of polysiloxane and polyurethane coatings being used to create writable and erasable surfaces may have not been the first or only applications and use, but the projects were documented and demonstrate the innovation of dry erase paint and the creation of writable-erasable painted surfaces utilizing polysiloxane and polyurethane coatings in the 1990s.

Precision Coatings introduced its first fine finish cleanable polysiloxane coating in 2006 under the name PC5. PC5 is supplied in several sheens and can be applied to tile surfaces, steel substrates, aluminum substrates, stainless steel, brass, sealed gypsum board and cementacious substrates. PC5 provides a hard, non-porous, easily cleaned, stain resistant and anti-graffiti surface that is commercially attractive in restaurants, retail, healthcare, theme parks and offices while containing no dangerous isocyanates. PC5 also demonstrates excellent writable-erasable ink release properties.

Precision Coatings further developed the application and performance properties of PC5 to enhance its suitability as a writable-erasable coating and began marketing and selling the polysiloxane coating under the name EeZeClean in 2011. EeZeClean was the first polysiloxane coating developed and marketed specifically to the dry erase coating market.

EeZeClean demonstrates excellent dry erase ink release properties, a ceramic like non-porous finish and excellent adhesion to quality acrylic emulsion architectural paints.

Polysiloxanes are much safer and easier to install in occupied structures than traditional two component polyurethanes which contain dangerous isocyanates (see OSHA Instruction CPL 03-00-017 National Emphasis Program – Occupational Exposure to Isocyanates). EeZeClean Dry Erase Paint is formulated for application safety and the safety of those working in close proximity to an area where EeZeClean Dry Erase Paint is being applied.

EeZeClean Dry Erase Paint is manufactured by Precision Coatings in Springfield, Missouri and distributed through paint retailers in the Americas.

See Best Practice: Dry Erase Paint / Dry Erase Wall