Optimization of product performance of a paint formulation using a mixture experiment

A paint manufacturing company was facing the problem of Vehicle Separation and Settling in one of its prime products. These two abnormalities are, in general, opposing in nature. The manufacturer tried several modifications in the existing recipe for the product but failed to control them. Experimentation was carried out using mixture design, a special type of designed experiment, and quadratic response surface models were fitted for both the responses. Finally, optimum formulation was obtained by simultaneously optimizing the two response surface models. During the determination of optimal formulation, different methods were compared. The optimum formulation is currently being used for regular manufacturing.