Insights from Mr. Ankit Goel, Founder and MD of Deep Polychem Private Limited (and former buy-side analyst at Goldman Sachs), presented at the Paintvision Global Business Summit 2026.
For paint and dry-mix manufacturers, achieving a stable formulation that performs consistently is a constant battle. How many times has a customer complained because heavy aggregates in a textured finish settled during shipping, or because a wall putty turned stiff and unworkable in the heat of an Indian summer? Traditionally, the industry has leaned on cellulose ethers – MHEC, HEC, CMC – to manage viscosity and water retention. But traditional cellulosics carry hidden traps that quietly compromise product performance and inflate raw material costs.
At the Paintvision Global Business Summit 2026, Deep Polychem introduced an alternative built to close that gap: ThixoSet, a proprietary nano-additive designed to break formulators out of what Mr. Goel calls the “viscoelastic trap.”
The Three Hidden Failures of Traditional Cellulosics
To fix a formulation problem, it helps to understand why traditional cellulose ethers fail, both on the shop floor and out in the field. The first is thermal gelation – the Indian summer problem. Cellulose ethers rely on hydrogen bonds to hold water and build structure, and once temperatures cross 40°C, a routine occurrence across much of India, those hydrogen bonds start to break down, forcing formulators to drastically increase cellulose dosage every summer just to keep putties and adhesives workable. The second is a spoilage hazard – cellulosics are a prime food source for bacteria and enzymes, and microbial attack over time breaks down the cellulose chains, leading to a sharp loss of viscosity, water separation, and spoiled batches. The third is the viscoelastic trap itself: cellulosics don’t possess a true yield stress or absolute thixotropy, and because they fail to thin sufficiently under shear, painters end up dealing with heavy, sticky application, roller spatter, and poor levelling.
The Nano Solution: How ThixoSet Works
ThixoSet is a fully inert, climate-proof nano-additive that works through an electrostatic 3D lattice rather than the fragile hydrogen bonds cellulosics depend on, building a structural grid that physically traps pigments and water molecules in place. Think of it through the classic tomato sauce metaphor: at rest, the 3D grid holds the paint in a high-viscosity state, heavy pigments stay suspended, and water separation drops to zero. The moment shear is applied – brushing, rolling, trowelling – the grid temporarily collapses and viscosity drops to a buttery, smooth consistency for effortless application. Once shear is removed, the network reforms instantly, holding the film in place and preventing sagging, running, or dripping. Best of all, the dosage required is remarkably low – typically just 250 grams per metric ton.
Application-Specific Breakthroughs and Cost Economics
Because ThixoSet modifies rheology at the molecular level, it delivers meaningful technical and financial gains across several product lines. In wall putty and white cement, at a dosage of 250g–300g per ton, ThixoSet dramatically improves “trowel feel,” making application glide more smoothly and extending open time, while also supporting more complete hydration of cement, boosting 24-hour and 28-day strength by 10% to 15%. Because it strengthens the binder structurally, formulators can safely reduce polymer dosage – in a typical putty formulation, substituting a portion of polymer content with ThixoSet allows a reduction from 7 kg to 5 kg of polymer per ton while still delivering a superior final product.
In high-performance tile adhesives – Type 3 and Type 4, handling large-format tiles – where slippage is a major failure point, ThixoSet at a dosage of 250g–500g per ton provides strong anti-sag and anti-slip properties, extending open time by 8 to 10 minutes while improving 24-hour adhesion strength by 10% to 15%. In water-based paints and distempers, ThixoSet prevents the sagging and dripping that commonly occurs when painters dilute product with water on-site, and formulators can replace 25% to 50% of their CMC or HEC with ThixoSet while separately reducing expensive HEUR thickener dosages by 40% to 50% – cutting raw material costs substantially while improving film build, levelling, and spatter control. In epoxy grouts and PU adhesives, ThixoSet serves as a cost-effective, easy-to-handle replacement for fumed silica, delivering the same non-sag and non-slump properties without silica’s handling difficulties, low bulk density, or respiratory hazards.
Going Beyond: Next-Gen Additives from Deep Polychem
For formulators looking further ahead, Deep Polychem also highlighted two additional technologies: S1 and S2, flexible RDPs designed specifically for large-format tiles with excellent micro-crack bridging and substrate versatility, and Tattva NanoSil 30P, a stable, pre-dispersed liquid nano-silica that eliminates the dust-handling problems of dry silica while giving finished paint films exceptional UV resistance, stain resistance, and dust-pickup resistance.
Rethinking a paint or dry-mix formulation isn’t just about cutting costs – it’s about locking in quality, so that what leaves the plant on day one behaves exactly the same way when it’s applied months down the line.
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