Benefits of Polyaspartic Coatings in Industrial Coatings

There comes a point in any flooring job where the floor needs to be finished. Often, because of the other trades that are involved in a building project, the floor is the last to be finished. When the time comes to put the final touches on a floor, flooring installers often choose polyaspartic coatings. Before we can explain the benefits of polyaspartic coatings, let’s look a bit at what they are and how they work.

What is a polyaspartic coating?

Polyaspartics were developed in the 1990s. Believe it or not, the chemical building blocks of polyaspartics were derived from boiling asparagus juice, which is how it got its name. The poly part of the name means it is long chains of atoms. Many small atoms of one type are grouped together into larger atoms.

Without getting too technical, polyaspartics are a group of polyureas, which are a subgroup of polyurethane. Bayer Material Science, now known as Covestro, makes polyaspartics. They say, “The chemistry of polyaspartic coatings is based on the reaction of an aliphatic polyisocyanate with a polyaspartic ester to create an aliphatic polyurea.” That’s a lot of polys. Basically, it’s that joining up of small molecules into larger molecules that provides the solid protective surface that people want when they choose a polyaspartic coating.

Why use a polyaspartic coating?

The rate of reaction of the polyaspartic ester can be controlled, which means you can have control over the pot life and the cure time of this coating. This means the polyaspartic system can be user friendly. It has long pot life, longer working times and yet still provides a very fast cure.

Polyaspartic coatings can be roller-applied or spray-applied without the use of solvents. By themselves, they are no VOCs coatings. Polyaspartic coatings are UV and light stable and will not yellow like some epoxies, polyureas and polyurethanes.

Polyaspartics can be applied as a concrete coating either clear or with pigments added. For your clients who want color or some visual interest, broadcast media such as quartz, vinyl paint chips or metallic pigments can be incorporated.

The benefits of polyaspartic coatings

Polyaspartic resins offer many benefits over traditional resins. They can withstand scratching and chemicals more so than other resins. They can be installed more quickly. The 100% solids version of a polyaspartic coating has no odor, solvent or VOCs.

Because they have no odor, they can be used in places where a business is still operating during installation. Polyaspartics cure quickly in ambient room temperature. Polyaspartic coatings typically cure in one to four hours even in cold weather (around 40 degrees). This means your business can have minimal shutdown. This is why, like e said at the beginning, last-minute flooring jobs often choose polyaspartics because of how fast they are.

Duraamen Industrial and Polished Concrete Flooring Products are designed to provide labor saving and long lasting flooring solutions. Talk to an expert about your flooring challenges…Please Call + 973 230 1301 / eMail Us