Low viscosity epoxy for ultra-hight solids maintenance and protective coatings

 
Solvent-borne epoxy coatings are the dominant coating technology used to protect metal assets in the marine, petrochemical, and infrastructure markets, due to their excellent balance of properties, including corrosion resistance, chemical resistance, and adhesion. However, due to market and regulatory drivers for reduced volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions and improved worker safety, there is a need for new epoxy resins that enable ultra-high solids (>= 90%) epoxy coatings with improved performance for maintenance and protective coating applications. Currently available ultra-high solids coatings based on standard epoxy resins can suffer from a number of drawbacks, including high viscosity, poor spray application qualities, and reduced corrosion resistance. This paper will highlight a novel low viscosity epoxy (LVE) that demonstrates significantly lower viscosity versus standard bisphenol-A and bisphenol-F epoxy resins, while enabling ultra-high solids coatings with improved sprayability and appearance and excellent corrosion resistance.