TEKPOL | Polyurea

Application Areas of Polyurea

To be able to define the right applications, a good understanding of the properties of polyurea spray coatings is needed. Polyurea systems are known to be very tough. They combine high elasticity with high surface hardness, resulting in very good abrasion resistance. The market development started in the US, followed by Asia, with a very strong growth during the second half of the 1990s. In a first stage, polyurea was used as a protective layer over polyurethane insulation foam for roofing applications. In Europe, the polyurea spray coatings market only started to develop in the last few years. The broad window of application conditions, with a high tolerance for humidity, both from the environment and from the substrate, and temperature, makes polyurea a very suitable coating for concrete in construction applications like roof repair, containment liners, membranes, car park decks, bridges and offshore. The high abrasion resistance leads to its application in liners for truck, bulk transport wagons, freight ships and conveyor belts. Table 1 represents an overview of the application fields where polyurea is chosen based on one or more of the unique application and/or film properties.

. Roof Coatings
. Flat Roof Repair
. Pipe Protection
. Inner pipe repair
. Secondary containment
. Tank coatings
. Truck bed liners
. Freight ship liners
. Bulk transport wagon liners
. Conveyer belts
. Car park decks
. Bridges
. Offshore

The Polyurea Advantage

Polyurea elastomer coatings offer many advantages over their traditional counterparts (i.e. polyurethanes, polyurethaneurea hybrids). The following highlights a number of polyurea's advantageous attributes.

1. Fast cure. Polyurea can be sprayed on sloped (and even vertical) surfaces without drip or run formation. Foot traffic can resume on coatings applied to horizontal surfaces within 30 seconds.

2. Water insensitivity. Relative moisture and temperature insensitivity during application. Little effect is encountered with adhesion or coating performance due to weather variations (i.e. high humidity, temperature, and residual moisture).

3. 100% Solids. Two-component, one-coat system can be sprayed or poured at a 1:1 volume ratio. Eliminates the need for multi-coat applications. It is environmentally friendly.

4. Excellent physical properties. Including tensile strength, tear strength, and elongation.

5. Thermal stability. Stable up to 350°F.

6. Pigment compatible. Colorants can be added to change appearance and light-stability.

Conclusions

Polyurea holds a unique position in the coatings industry as well as in the polyurethane coatings industry. The new developments both for the raw material and the application equipment have enlarged the application portfolio considerably. The important advantages of polyurea spray coatings are the ir reactivity, water insensitivity, low temperature curing and their unique physical and chemical properties. Despite its raw material cost, higher than for most other systems, polyurea can still be the most cost-effective system available at present for consequent and specific projects. Polyurea coatings will not replace all other systems, but have their place in high growth niche coatings markets. If one or more of the unique performance properties are met, polyurea can be the best or even the only suitable solution available depending on endproperties required or application conditions . The ultimate success of a polyurea system for a project will always be dependent on the involvement of the four key players, namely the raw material supplier, the equipment manufacturer, the systems house and the applicator.