Acrylic resins bring interesting properties like transparency, high colourability and UV resistance Acrylic coatings can be applied on very different substrates like plastics, wood, metal and glass, to name a few. Acrylics are often used in waterborne systems, which bring lower VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) levels. Acrylic coatings can lead to high surface hardnesses but also elastomeric finishes, as employed in some fluid applied roof coating systems for buildings. In such wall, deck and roof coatings acrylic elastomeric formulations bring cold weather elasticity on top of the good UV resistance.

Acrylic resins to be used in coatings are showing one of the strongest growth compared to other systems like Alkyd. Due to even tougher environmental requirements the automotive industry is using more and more acrylic basecoats. Acrylics are also widely used in the architectural paint formulations where the excellent color retention under outdoor exposures is a key advantage. Whatever the market is the compatibility of acrylics with environmentally friendly waterborne formulations is a very strong driver. Worldwide sales of acrylic resins for coatings were estimated up to 5 billion US$ in 2009.