Low Temperature Curing for Heavy Duty Coatings

In many applications such as heavy duty coatings, customers want coatings that can be cured at low temperatures. Two new types of Mannich base hardeners have been developed, both able to deliver high-solids formulations with fast low temperature cure.

Lower curing temperatures are a key feature for heavy duty to safe costs because coated materials can leave the climate controlled/heated coatings chamber faster. This reduces energy costs and improves throughput of assembly lines.

Today, mostly 2K epoxy-amine systems are widely used in applications like coating of Agriculture, construction and earth moving equipment (ACE).

Standard reactive polyamido-amines (RPAA) are still in use, however, curing temperatures have to stay above 15 °C to work properly. Phenalkamines offer better low-temperature curing, but may induce discolouration and intercoat adhesion problems.

In the current issue of the European Coatings Journal (10/2017), a new type of hardener is described, that allows curing temperatures of roughly 5 °C.

The two new types of hardeners use Mannich base technology to deliver high-solids formulations with fast curing and improved properties at low temperatures that are comparable to common used coatings.