Dry Film Thickness (DFT) Calculator.
Estimate the final dried coating thickness based on your wet application thickness readings.
Wet Readings & Specs
Solvents thin the wet paint and evaporate completely during drying.
Formula: `DFT = (WFT × Solids%) / (100 + Thinner%)`
Solvents evaporate (the dotted border region), shrinking the wet paint layer to the solid darker blue line.
Understanding Dry Film Thickness.
What is DFT?
Dry Film Thickness (DFT) is the thickness of a coating remaining on the substrate after the paint cures and dries. Achieving the correct DFT is critical: if the dry layer is too thin, it will fail to protect the surface (leading to rust in steel or weathering in wood); if it is too thick, it can sag, crack, or fail to cure correctly.
DFT is measured on cured coatings using magnetic film gauges (for steel) or eddy-current gauges (for aluminum).
Volume Solids Explained
Volume Solids represents the percentage of paint ingredients that are non-volatile and remain on the surface to form the dry film.
For example, a paint with **40% volume solids** contains 40% solid binder/pigment and 60% liquid solvent. If you apply 10 mils of wet paint, it will dry to exactly 4 mils of dry film (`10 mils × 0.4 = 4 mils`).