Why to Use Waterborne Polyurethane for Floor Coatings?

Many a times, selecting between oil and waterborne polyurethane may seem to be a no brainer but it is not as easy as you may be thinking it to be. Though oil based polyurethane may last longer and look better, water based also offers some great advantages. Let’s go through some of them:

• Water based polyurethane dries faster as compared to the oil based. You can complete the work faster and walk on the floor when using waterborne polyurethane. This can be quite beneficial for businesses where the drying time means the store has to be closed.
• When compared to the oil based poly, the water based doesn’t smell too bad. This is the reason why many houses prefer to use the water based poly. Due to its increasing popularity some leading manufacturer of oxazolidines also manufactures waterborne polyurethane dispersions for use in different residential and commercial areas.
• With lower Volatile Organic Compounds, water based poly is bit better for the environment. This benefit has an impact during its drying time and this is the reason why manufacturers are making more money on the water based.

We hope this post will help you in making a better and informed decision with the better reasons to use water based poly coating. You can look for professionals who use water based poly for floor coatings and offer services at decent prices.

 

3 Most Popular Applications of Waterborne Polyurethane

All around the world, on an ever increasing number solvent based product are being phased out in favour of water based products. Environmental concern one, too many eye brows were raised about its effects on humans who came in contact with the chemicals during application. What the industry has come up with is several times better than what have been in use all these years and the new alternative is remarkably better in many aspects. Without getting too deep into that, we will show you instances of confident adoption of this new solution.

Hygiene coats
Let’s begin with application of Waterborne Polyurethane in hotels, restaurants and healthcare institutions. Cleaning is easy and rapid and takes less time to be done.  One thing that is common in all of these places is the need to keep surfaces perfectly clean and hygienic. A simple water based application dries up quickly, leaves no odour behind and reduces chance of being contaminated by bacteria, which you can imagine is quite crucial in every hospital, restaurant and nursing home.

Anti-Radiation coats
The summer is upon us and with the tropical sun beating down relentlessly, the need for anti-radiation Waterborne Polyurethane has become ever more necessary. A coat on the exterior walls and roofs not only keep the interiors cool, but also lowers energy expense. These coatings can be made waterproof as well to prevent water from seeping into walls.

Floor coatings
If the floor is dusty or if the floor in a supply room, warehouse, restaurant, shopping area and requires to be made resistant to pedestrian traffic, or if the look and aesthetics of a floor has to be improved upon, a single-component Waterborne Epoxy floor coating system should be suitable. These coatings, in addition to being water-based have low VOC and practically no odour.

Polyurethane benefitting from the green trend

The market of polyurethane stands chance to benefit from the green trend, as new and modern materials and technologies are being used.

The green trend suggests the development of waterborne polyurethane coatings. Several sustainable raw materials, alternative raw materials strategies and securing the emission profiles are in consideration. The primary reason being the present environmental legislation particularly REACH and VOC regulations.

As per some industry experts, this trend will pave the way for the removal of some particular catalysts and certain additives used for the PUR coatings. On the other hand the polyurethane market will stand chance to benefit from the green trend, since new and modern sustainable materials are being used.

In the research and development field, the sustainability, amine free technologies, environment friendly isoianates, waterborne polyurethanes are some of the topics that are being discussed at several coating events and conferences. 

The waterborne PUR coatings and the low impact technologies are becoming very important. Several waterborne systems are being developed and the distance between the waterborne and solvent borne systems have narrowed over the years.

In terms of the drying time, the waterborne still lags behind and it is a main challenge that needs to overcome. The gap that is present between the waterborne and solvent borne has become short over the years. Such products needs to be developed that can match up to the high standards of the solvents.

The Demand for Waterborne Polyurethane Increasing by the Day

When you check the internet you will notice that there are a number of companies who are involved in the process of manufacturing the Oxazolidine, waterborne epoxy curing agents and even waterborne polyurethane dispersions. These high quality and high performance materials are sold all across the world and there are a lot of producers who are involved in the selling of coatings, adhesives, sealants and even elastomers.

The demand for the material is so much that it does not fade away with time and the demand for these products have increased so much all across the world  that a lot of companies have also started participating in this race and it helps in generating the maximum revenue.

The products that are used include oxazolidine, waterborne epoxy curing agents, polyurethane dispersions. It also includes some other products like NMP free polyurethane dispersions, co-solvent free waterborne polyurethane dispersions, polyurethane /acrylic hybrid dispersions, NMP free polyurethane/ acrylic hybrid dispersions, and polyurethane pre-polymers IPDi.

These epoxy curing agents are used widely to emulsify and harden the liquid and the solid epoxy resins. This is the reason why the material is so much in demand from those companies who are not able to do without the epoxy curing agents. It is important that you contact an experienced company and get all the details about the product so that you can use it in different applications and in industries.

The Usage of Polymers

Polymer is considered to be an interlinking of many units. It can be compared to the paper garland that is made of interlinked pieces of paper. In the cases of papers the interlinking units of the carbon, hydrogen, oxygen or the silicone molecules can be used. Each link of the chain that is present is termed as “mer” or the basic unit so it is called as polymers.

Polymers are long chains where the chemical units are repeated or are monomers. The chemical structure of the resultant molecule can be linear, cyclic or it can be branched. When a single monomer is linked to other monomers of the same type then the resultant product is known as homopolymer.

If there are more types of monomers that are linked then it is called copolymers or dipolymers. The monomers in this scenario are arranged in a statistical, random or in an alternating manner.

With development and advancement and advancement in technology there are new patents that are used for novel molecules and they have some latest innovations like waterborne polyurethane, polyurethane dispersion, flame retardant polymers etc.

Natural polymers like tar, shellac, tortoise shell and horns produce amber and latex. These polymers are processed with the help of heat and pressure into something useful like hair ornaments and jewelry. Products like Waterborne polyurethane, polyurethane dispersion are quite useful and effective too.

Waterborne Polyurethane for Glossy Floor Coatings

Waterborne Polyurethane was such difficult term for me when I wasn’t aware about this term. But now when I am familiar with it, it seems exciting. Even Polyurethane dispersion too can be understood easily when you are aware this term.
 
The term Polyurethane coatings are widely used as topcoats for the protection of wind turbine towers and blades. Moreover, the Polyurethane chemistry can be manipulated to provide low temperature and in curing characteristics too it can be used. Polyurethane includes benefits such as it works well with thick film applications, retains good workability of the sealant and has more beneficial points along with it.

When the above mentioned characteristics are provided they make the tower sections shipped within a few hours and at that only meantime long term coating performance requirements are provided which is able to meet International standard globally. The chemistry is highly versatile, with aromatic and aliphatic types offering the formulator a range of properties to meet differing performance requirements.

These Polyurethane dispersions are designed to facilitate the formulation of high performance coatings, adhesives and inks. They work well with waterborne polyurethane and in dispersion method too they are compatible.  It reacts fully and therefore can be formulated into low VOC coatings with low toxicity ratings which is helpful in giving your floor a new glossy look.

Advantage of waterborne polyurethane dispersions

The reason why the demand for waterborne polyurethane dispersion is so high is the fact that it is the best and safest replacement available for solvent based coatings. In addition, they tend to cause no harm to our green environment. Waterborne polyurethane dispersions are a rapidly growing segment of the polyurethane coatings industry which has come into force due to the environment legislations such as Clear Air Act. Another reason may be the technological enhancements that have made them an effective substitute for the solvent-based coatings.

These dispersions are versatile and environment friendly coating materials. Moreover, they come in a wide variety of hardness and solid content. Their zero to low volatile organic content enables their formulation into a compliant coating for various substrates. Their versatility and great range of excellent properties such as abrasion resistance, impact strength and low temperature flexibility are the driving forces to their regularly expanding usage in different applications.

Polyurethane dispersions are extremely reacted polyureas of small and scattered polymer particles ranging from 0.01-5.0 microns in a continuous water phase. They are free of isocyanate residues and have a zero or a very low volatile organic content (VOC). They are safe to handle and are a good choice for compliant coatings.

Waterborne Polyurethane Prepolymers

The demand for waterborne polyurethane coatings is surging day by day with large number of users using it for the trade coating of wood and parquet floors. Their quality of producing very small amount of volatile organic compounds (VOC) makes them every useful. They are almost odorless and are almost nil polyurethane dispersion available that do not contain N-methyl pyrrolidione (NMP).

It is obvious that new waterborne polyurethane prepolymers require less co-solvent to produce good coatings than the products containing NMP. The waterborne polyurethane coatings are in huge demand due to their unmatched resistance to abrasion and high mechanical resistance properties.

Nowadays, the manufacturers have developed the new polyurethane dispersions by replacing the old polymer mixing process which includes NMP as a solvent with the acetone process. The acetone process requires adjusting the recipes for the dispersions to be responsible for the lower solvent power of the acetone, which is distilled off following the creation of the prepolymer to get a solvent-free product.

Waterborne polyurethane prepolymers offer excellent chemical resistance and high finish. The final product can be used separately or in association with NMP-free polyurethane dispersions as the A component in two-component systems.