Chemical Resistance and Moisture Barrier for Epoxy Application Areas

Chemical Resistance

Epoxy paints are now being used in more applications with Turkey's growing market and coming into greater contact with our daily lives. For this reason, various resins and hardeners are used primarily for health and subsequently to ensure epoxy can be used for many years. Chemical resistance is extremely important both for health and for the product's long-term usability.

Chemical resistance is predominantly used in the following application areas:

• Water tanks, • Oil tanks, • Solvent tanks, • Piping, • Sewage water piping, • Industrial floors. These chemicals are primarily used to provide resistance against products such as water, oil, xylene, acid and wine. However, if a company claims to have a product resistant to chemicals, they must have conducted tests for that product at 3 days, 1 month and 1 year. Because there can be incredible differences between 3 days and 1 year.

Chemical-Resistant Hardener Trend

The chemical structure of the hardener can be adjusted according to the chemical structure of the epoxy coating system (hydrophobicity, lipophilicity).  

Moisture Barrier:

Standard solvent-free binder systems do not interact sufficiently on wet surfaces and create poor adhesion on the surface with a hazy film appearance. Wet and permeable substrate (primer) coating increases the risk of swelling. A surface-tolerant primer should be applied to wet/damp concrete. These are solvent-free primers used as moisture barriers sensitive to moisture. At the same time, they increase adhesion between old and new concrete. On failed damp concrete surfaces, perfect adhesion to wet concrete is achieved by using a surface-tolerant epoxy system such as Aradur 450S.

Primer for Resistance to Swelling:

Conventional primer systems show a certain tendency toward blister formation on wet substrates. This tendency can be accelerated by heat. An in-house laboratory test accelerated with an IR lamp (results at a film temperature between 50 and 60°C) showed that standard epoxy binders form blisters. In most cases, the Aradur 450S with Araldite GY 783 binder system is much more resistant to blistering. Serhat Aktaş / Sales Manager / Veser Kimyevi Maddeler A.Ş.