Novel Oil Modified Urethane for Wood Flooring Applications

By Yuting Li, Shi Yang, Scott Cooley

Vegetable oil modified urethane (OMU) has been widely used in wood flooring applications for many decades. Due to tightening volatile organic compound (VOC) regulations in recent years, the market has been slowly shifting towards waterborne systems. However, most of the current waterborne OMUs either still contain N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP), or the VOC is still relatively high at 135–250 g/L, while the non-volatile (NV) content is relatively low at 32–38% and thus requires multiple coats to achieve performance properties.¹

This article demonstrates a recent breakthrough in the development of a novel NMP-free waterborne OMU with a VOC <100 g/L and a high 45% NV content that maintains the exceptional performance properties of traditional solventborne and waterborne OMUs in the market. Its potential applications include but are not limited to high performance clear wood floor coatings, conformal coatings, air dry, and force cure coatings.