A SECRET AGENT Alison Thomson, Research and Development Project Leader at Incorez, looks at how
waterborne epoxy curing agents can provide the optimum bonding cure for industrial floors where durable coatings and screeds are required.
Ensuring an industrial floor can withstand the daily stress of water, chemicals and high mechanical loads whilst meeting health, safety and environmental regulations is never going to be easy. It’s why high- performance flooring solutions have a tough role to play and require physical characteristics and curing agents which offer long lasting protection.
The huge rise in resin flooring has seen customers demand greater levels of performance for specific applications, but much depends on the nature of the amine curing agent. There are many perceived weaknesses of water-based curing agents, namely that they cannot achieve the same performance as solvent-based technology. Incorez has taken performance to a new level, developing a hardener that has good universal compatibility with all epoxy resin types and addresses fundamental challenges with water-based technology, such as low-temperature cure, blushing and water resistance.
With physical characteristics such as excellent abrasion and impact resistance, together with high chemical, water and solvent resistance, Incorez curing agents are the perfect choice for industrial and decorative concrete floor paints. They are also more user-friendly as they are waterborne, low VOC and low odour.
TAILOR MADE Incorez works specifically with customers to develop hardeners that suit their exact needs. It’s important to consider that with amine hardeners, whatever you are trying to achieve, when you change one thing, you end up changing other properties at the same time. Therefore, it’s critical to get the right balance of properties. By asking precisely what
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our customers want, we can then develop bespoke hardeners that will suit their specific application.
With contractors faced with continuing time and cost pressures, curing times are a critical factor for any epoxy flooring application. Achieving excellent cure performance in a real- life application is therefore one of the main drivers in product development at Incorez. By looking at the main epoxies customers use with amine hardeners, Incorez will then take the whole range
to ensure the curing times for each type of epoxy will be fast curing in every sort of application. This will involve application trials with formulations, in order to provide us and the client with a real time application.
Even when a product is designed for one application, Incorez carries out extensive testing to ensure it’s a versatile product and not specifically for one type of use. For example, we developed the Amirez 148-055 for a high gloss top coat, but some customers want to use the product as a primer because of its adhesion properties.
The relationship between Incorez and customers doesn’t end at the point of sale. Our technical department will continue to work with a customer to ensure that if they have a problem or want to change something they can come back to us to deliver the best results.
The search for products which help improve the performance of formulated systems is constantly evolving. By working with customers, it is possible to continually innovate and break new ground. When it comes to improving the bottom line for operations both large and small, custom chemicals are an import component in the creation of a better performing product.
www.incorez.com SCREEDS & RESINS | 37
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