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Coatings
Cabinet, furniture and wood floor manufacturers understand the importance of protective coatings to preserve and enhance the natural beauty of their wood creations. Naturally occurring tannin compounds in all species of wood are in a large part responsible for its beauty, stability and durability. However, if these compounds migrate to the wood's surface, they can cause discoloration and turn the wood very dark if unprotected and exposed to the environment. To counteract the deterioration process of wood surfaces so that it can be used as furniture, cabinets, counters, and various other applications, many manufacturers trust polyurethane coatings containing raw materials from Bayer.
Polyurethane coatings offer numerous high-performance properties such as:
- Providing long-lasting surface finish
- Resisting harsh effects such as UV light damage, general wear-and-tear, and extreme temperature variations that can occur during shipping and storing
- Fast drying
- Excellent sanding properties
- Do not raise grain
- Can be applied as a multi-coat, rubbed, or buffed finish
- Excellent wood penetration
- Superior chemical resistance properties
Polyurethane coatings for wood applications can use either one-component (1K) or two-component (2K) systems. These systems are available as either solventborne or waterborne. Although solventborne systems have traditionally dominated the wood industry, waterborne technology is revolutionizing it by delivering a coating formulation that offers the advantages of traditional solventborne systems, and dramatically reduces the amount of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), sometimes by as much as 90%.
Wood manufacturers understand their responsibility for helping to protect and preserve the environment. They also must meet the increasing regulatory and consumer pressure to reduce emissions in the materials they use. As a result, the wood industry is turning to paint suppliers for quality, new, cost-effective solutions such as waterborne technology introduced by Bayer. Other technologies have touted these benefits, but cannot compare with the price and performance of Bayer's 2K water-reducible polyurethane technology.
Bayer product lines used most often for 2K waterborne polyurethane systems are Bayhydrol and Bayhydur. In addition to ultra low VOCs and HAPs, this system offers many benefits including formaldehyde-free coating, excellent chemical resistance, fast drying, early print resistance, can be rubbed and buffed, excellent color retention, and low fire hazard.
Another technology that reduces VOCs and HAPs is a high solids system. This solventborne polyurethane coating uses Bayer's Desmophen and Desmodur product lines. High solids offer numerous advantages including low viscosity, moderate equivalent weight and reactivity, high hardness with good flexibility, fast dry time, long pot life, excellent weathering, and environmental etch resistance.
Bayer product lines used most often for traditional 2K solventborne polyurethane wood coatings are Desmophen and Desmodur. The system can use either aliphatic or aromatic polyisocyanates. It doesn't raise grain and offers good pore conformation. It also stabilizes poor veneers. VOC levels are typically more than 4lbs/gal.
Other popular systems include 1K polyurethane dispersion coating systems and unsaturated polyester coating systems. For these systems, Bayer recommends their Bayhydrol or Roskydal product lines. The polyurethane dispersion system offers adequate resistance properties, can be blended with thermoplastic acrylics and has VOC levels at approximately 2lbs/gal. The unsaturated polyester system is available as air inhibited and non-air inhibited. They can be either air dried or UV cured. It can achieve extremely high film build and high gloss/DOI.
Bayer provides outstanding support and expertise for customer application and equipment demands. Bayer has advanced application experience with waterborne, solventborne, polyureas, polyurethane, quick cures, 100 percent solids, and UV chemistry. We offer our service to you or to your customer. This service also includes line optimization, line set-up, fields trials and plant trials. Equipment and mixing solutions related to most types of wood chemistries and viscosities are available.
For more information about Wood Coatings, contact Bayer Polymers using our e-mail inquiry form.
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