A new way to ensure metal protection with Waterborne Dispersion

Metals and their alloys are excellent materials with high strength and outstanding mechanical properties; they have been used for centuries. However, when they are exposed to a corrosive environment, surface of the steel structures will corrode and thus pose a potential danger to the whole steel structure and reduce its service life. The huge economic impact of the corrosion of metallic structures is a very important issue for all modern societies. Today, the corrosion protection of metal is often obtained by multi-layer systems involving at least a primer and a top coat. These two coats are often based on different technologies implying solvent borne and water borne binders and formulations. It introduces complexity in the applications and drying equipment and processes. Arkema has developed a new waterborne acrylic technology that provides by itself a very high protection to corrosion and a good adhesion on a large variety of substrates, under hard conditions. Due to these key features, this new Arkema’s technology offers the advantage that it can be used as single Direct To Metal coating (DTM). In the article, the new properties will be presented, as well as mechanisms and fundamentals which have been used to develop the technology.