How Innovative Polyamide Technology can Maximise the Long Term Overcoatability of High Performance Epoxy Coatings Systems

Michael Cook, Rob Rasing, Air Products Netherlands BV, Nederlands

Epoxy technology is a key performance binder in the world of Marine and Protective Coatings. Today the industry faces many challenges and it is important to ensure technology delivers the end performance as specified by the end user, while at the same time meeting the increasingly stringent environmental drivers within the market. Conventional high solid polyamide technology for two pack epoxies, provides outstanding performance and has become the industry standard for application in this sector. However, a major limitation to date is their poor re-coatability after applying the initial coating. The re-coat window or the time period where a second coating can be applied to result in good adhesion, has become of mounting importance. Increased geographical separation of the coating and fabrication processes has resulted in a requirement for protective primers to provide a re-coat window of up to 6 months. Conventional high solids epoxies have only a limited re-coatability, leading to higher cost for surface pre-treatment and extended manufacturing down times, prior to application of subsequent coats. Within this paper, a new innovative polyamide technology will be presented that offers significantly increased performance to negate this issue, delivering higher performance value to both the formulator and end applicator.