VISIOMER^® – methacrylate monomers for paintS, coatings AND PRINTING INKS

More than 7,500 years ago, Chinese and Japanese craftsmen discovered that the sap of lacquer trees could be used to give wooden surfaces a protective finish. At the time, color was a privilege reserved for wealthy people, and paints were made from natural oils (pine tree, linseed) as well as inorganic and often toxic pigments.

The chemical revolution of the 20th century finally enabled scientists to develop more robust resins from petrochemical sources – with even better performance, availability and at a lower cost.

Waterborne coatings, solvent-based coatings and reactive systems

Since their first appearance on the market 25 years ago, waterborne coatings have gained more and more significance in coatings applications due to their advantageous properties. As a consequence of increasingly stringent environmental standards, waterborne coatings, which have an inherently low solvent content, continue to hold the pole position in the race towards ever lower VOC levels.
Traditional solvent-based coatings have, to some degree, also evolved into environmentally friendly products. With coatings made from high solids resins, e.g. VISIOMER® IBOMA or VISIOMER® c-HMA, excellent performance results are possible with an extremely low solvent content.
Reactive systems enable the manufacture of make resins, e.g. for wood coatings, using environmentally friendly and fast-curing UV or EB technologies, where VISIOMER® IBOA is used as a reactive diluent.

AUTOMOTIVE COATINGS

Automotive coatings combine an attractive finish with outstanding protection. Methacrylate resins, with their inherently excellent weatherability and scratch resistance, are ideally associated with diisocyanates to add flexibility to high performance coatings. High gloss is achieved with high-solids monomers, such as VISIOMER® IBOMA or VISIOMER® c-HMA; they also result in a significant reduction of viscosity and thus excellent leveling. Hydroxyesters like VISIOMER® HEMA and HPMA serve as anchor molecules for crosslinking with polyurethanes.

ARCHITECTURAL & DECORATIVE COATINGS

Architectural coatings are widely used to protect wooden or concrete structures from bleaching, chalking and general deterioration. Protective and decorative coatings that require excellent film-formation, adhesion, durability and gloss properties are ideally formulated with methacrylate resins. The broad portfolio of VISIOMER® methacrylate monomers allows resins producers to design virtually any and every property into their product. Architectural coatings for outdoor applications preferably consist of VISIOMER® MMA, n-BMA or EHMA methacrylate resins, offering excellent weatherability and color stability. Desired film formation properties are obtained from the right mixture of hard (VISIOMER® MMA) and soft (VISIOMER® n-BMA, EHMA) comonomers. VISIOMER® GMAA helps stabilize emulsion polymers, while VISIOMER® MEEU improves adhesion properties and wet scrub resistance in humid climates. Hydrophobic properties can be adopted with long alkyl chain methacrylates, such as VISIOMER® IDMA, C13-MA and C17.4-MA. In the long run, methacrylate resins consistently demonstrate their advantages in applications where labor costs are a chief concern.

INDUSTRIAL COATINGS

Industrial coatings are the workhorses for covering the widest range of applications – heavy-duty, can and coil, wood, construction, flooring and other coatings. These are generally either solvent-based or waterborne systems. The broad portfolio of VISIOMER® methacrylate monomers enables formulators to precisely calibrate resin properties, such as adhesion, metal protection or even preservation of natural wood.