How Hybrid Nanocoating System Extends Coating Life

Applied over conventional paints, Nano-Clear “reduces maintenance frequency, recoating cycles, chemical costs with mixing, repair, and cleaning, and the volume of coating material required. Thus, it reduces expenses,” says Thomas Choate, CEO of the technology company. He further adds that studies have found the product to reduce the surface maintenance of paint by 50%.

Limitations of Conventional Coatings

According to the company, UV rays can cause conventional coatings to quickly degrade, leading to underlying corrosion. “Surface scratching exposes the steel to the environment, thereby causing corrosion,” Choate explains. “Chemical attack on conventional steel paints also cause underlying corrosion issues.”

The company notes that painted surfaces exposed to the environment are highly susceptible to damage from factors including water, humidity, salts, ice, heat, dirt, smog, oils, chemical attack, acid precipitation, and UV rays. This damage is of particular concern with assets, such as transoceanic ships, chemical tank cars, offshore oil rigs, heavy duty machinery, and fleet vehicles since these assets are regularly exposed to harsh environments.

According to Choate, many of these industrial assets historically have used one- or two-component pigmented epoxy and polyurethane coatings for metal protection. However, while epoxies have strong adhesion to metal with good initial corrosion resistance and surface hardness, Choate says they can fall short in areas of long-term UV and chemical resistance due to poor crosslink density within the linear chain molecules.

Benefits of Nanocoatings

By contrast, the single component, humidity cured, polyurethane/polyurea hybrid nanocoating penetrates into the pores and voids of new or highly oxidized paint systems to form a hard, protective topcoat surface. As a solvent-based system with low volatile organic compound values of 150 g/L, the topcoat also features repellency properties for oil and dirt, water and ice, brake dust, algae, and other environmental and biological contaminants.

Choate says his company is the first group to utilize 3-D nanostructured polymers within an industrial coating system to achieve a high crosslink density. He explains that the system has been successfully tested by numerous third-party organizations, including a study in Israel where the product was tested in a salt spray chamber for up to 5,000 hours and then put through an in-field test for one full year at industrial plants that experience severe corrosion conditions.

The product uses conventional paint application techniques, including airless high-volume, low-pressure or low-volume, low-pressure spray equipment. As a single-component coating, it is humidity cured and requires only 2 to 3 mils (50.8 to 76.2 microns) to be applied.

It can be applied to coating systems, including two-component epoxies, two-component polyurethanes, powder coatings, polyesters, gelcoats, latexes, fiberglass, and anodized aluminum to prevent filiform corrosion. The system, which Choate says is impervious to water and oxygen, comes with a 10-year warranty.

Topcoat application of Nano-Clear can be used on many different types of commercial and industrial assets as protection. Choate says technology in the polymer-based system is updated each year with the latest nanocoating technology including ice repellency and anti-barnacle prevention.

Note: The Nano-Clear system was one of 10 winners of the 2019 Materials Performance Corrosion Innovation of the Year Award.

Looking for information on maritime corrosion protection solutions? Sign up for a free subscription to AMPP’s Maritime News.

Source: Originally appeared on materialsperformance.com

FREE DOWNLOADS

White Paper: An Action Plan for Reducing Pipeline Failures, Costs with Corrosion in the Water Sector

Special Report: The Future of Corrosion Control, Insights from the Experts