Waterborne Epoxy Protective Coatings for Metal

By Jim D. Elmore, Derek S. Kincaid, Pratap C. Komar, Jon E. Nielsen

Recent enhancements in waterborne resin system polymers as well as the way they are formulated have produced paints with a set of barrier properties that are superior to their standard solventborne analogs. New generation waterborne epoxy and curing agent dispersions, and the paints formulated from them, have been introduced with changes from older generation waterbornes.

These changes include (1) totally nonionically dispersed paints in place of the older ionically dispersed types, (2) quicker coalescing, mutually soluble epoxy/amine vehicle resins rather than the former slow coalescing, highly branched epoxy/amine systems, and (3) utilization of stable, water compatible additives and fillers that complement the nonionic epoxy/amine resin vehicles.

In this paper, the success of these implemented technology changes is demonstrated by comparing the performance properties of the new generation with an industry standard epoxy/polyamide solventborne paint. This paper presents novel two-component waterborne epoxy resin and amine curing agent technology for ambient cure metal coatings.