How to Extend the Pot Life of Polyaspartic?

Knowledge
14 Nov, 2024

What is Pot Life?

Pot life, also known as usable life or working time, refers to the period during which a thermosetting resin or adhesive remains workable after the addition of a hardener or additive. This duration ends when the system's viscosity increases to the point that it's no longer usable. Factors such as the type, amount of hardener, additives, and ambient temperature all influence pot life. This metric significantly impacts the applicability of coatings and the performance of the cured layer. It's crucial to apply coatings before their pot life expires. Exceeding the pot life alters the coating’s viscosity and reduces its performance. For instance, if a two-component coating is mixed and left for too long before application, its viscosity increases, its performance decreases, and it may even become unusable due to gelling.

How to Extend the Pot Life of Polyaspartic?

Why is the Pot Life of Polyaspartic Short?

Polyaspartic polyurea is a two-component material, used in both coatings and adhesives, that requires a hardener. Its short pot life is primarily due to the high reactivity of the polyaspartic resin's primary amine functional groups with isocyanate hardeners. While this grants polyaspartic polyurea rapid drying and low-temperature curing properties, it also shortens its usable period.

Why is the Pot Life of Polyaspartic Polyurea Short?

Ways to Extend the Pot Life of Polyaspartic Polyurea:

  1. Carefully add diluents.
  2. Partially replace fast-drying resins such as F420 with slower-drying ones like F520.
  3. Avoid substances such as water, hydroxyl, acid, and base in the coating system, as they can catalyze polyaspartic polyurea.
  4. Adding molecular sieves is a proven and effective method.
  5. Replace certain fast-curing HDI trimer with slower-curing polyurethane prepolymers.
  6. Heat pigment fillers to remove water.
  7. Choose different pigment fillers.

Feiyang has been specializing in the production of raw materials for polyaspartic coatings for 30 years and can provide polyaspartic resins, hardeners and coating formulations. Some of our polyaspartic coating formulations: Polyaspartic Coating

Feel free to contact us: marketing@feiyang.com.cn

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