Flying sky high in an airship to celebrate Bayer anniversary
The coating raw materials experts at Bayer MaterialScience have developed a new polyacrylate binder that can be used to formulate topcoats with a very low concentration of volatile organic compounds (VOC) for large vehicles as well as farming and construction machinery. The company will present the new product under the name Bayhydrol® A 2809 XP at the European Coatings Show, from March 19 to 21, 2013, in Nuremberg.
“We have once again succeeded in reducing the concentration of cosolvent compared to the corresponding binder from the preceding generation by over 70 percent,” enthuses coating expert Robert Reyer of Bayer MaterialScience. With proper formulation, this low concentration of cosolvent also benefits waterborne two-component coatings. “Our topcoat starting formulation contains less than two percent cosolvent, compared to five percent with the use of the preceding binder. That is equivalent to a VOC content of just 30 g/l in the sprayable formulation,” Reyer says.
Naturally, coatings formulated with Bayhydrol® A 2809 XP exhibit outstanding quality despite the low VOC content. They display very good resistance to weathering and chemicals, and a very high gloss. The latter can even be increased in combination with a waterborne polyurethane binder like Bayhydrol® U XP 2766.
In the case of commercial vehicles, buses, farm machinery and trains, coatings usually are cured at temperatures of between 60 and 80 °C, levels that are significantly lower than in passenger car production lines, for instance. This frequently is the most cost-effective method in view of the low unit volumes and large size of the vehicles. Coatings can be produced with the new polyacrylate binder that is optimally adapted to these conditions. In addition, because closed coating systems with solvent recovery or afterburning are not as common for painting large vehicles as they are in the passenger car industry, paints with a low VOC content are all the more important.
Flying sky high in the Bayer airship
This year, the new binder is embarking on a long journey. To celebrate 150 years of Bayer, a company airship is acting as a heavenly ambassador and heading for global metropolises such as Sydney, Johannesburg, New York, Singapore, Tokyo, and Rio de Janeiro. Over 40 meters long, the airship will be sporting a huge Bayer Cross and the mission statement “Science For A Better Life” on its world tour. Within Europe, the Bayer Airship will be stopping in Paris, Barcelona, Milan, Rome and some German cities. The new binder’s good adhesion was another important factor in bringing it on board. The propeller protector made of aircraft steel and aluminum was coated with a waterborne two-component polyurethane filler based on Bayhydrol® A 2809 XP, Bayhydur® and Desmodur®.
