Protective coatings are used on, effectively, everything. Often more to protect than to decorate, these applications cover a range of things – from paint protecting a wall to zinc protecting steel and beyond. By definition, a ‘protective coating’ is a layer of material applied to a surface to prevent corrosion, although their implementation can offer much more. Here at Shirley Industrial Painters, we decided to offer some insight on the matter.
Components of Protective Coatings
There are five main components to protective coatings, and they are detailed below:
Binder – The main component, binder, holds the rest of the elements together and ensures the material sticks to it’s intended surface. The binder is dependant on materials, surface and climate but is often alkyd, acrylic, polyurethane, PVA or epoxy.
Extender – Extender reinforces the protective coating, and gives it body and texture, alongside also affecting how light is reflected from the coated surface.
Pigment – The pigment in protective coatings is a solid component that brings colour and helps to ensure the surface is fully covered.
Solvent – Being the volatile aspect of protective coatings, solvents are tasked with creating the correct consistency and make the material easy to apply. Solvents also dissolve the other raw materials, but are only found in paints, not powder coatings.
Additives – Additives are added in order to modify the properties of the coating itself. This could be for a range of benefits from preventing the coating degrading in the tin, to making the material flow for easy application, although there are many others.
As previously mentioned, protective coatings have a wide range of applications that are utilised to benefit the surface of which they are applied to. For example, some of ours can bring fire resistance to a material, whereas others are to simply prevent corrosion. The main takeaway is that protective coatings are often overlooked, but offer great benefits to the economy in ways that may not at first be obvious.
If you would like to hear more about the protective coatings we offer, visit our protective coatings page, call us today on 03333 660 408 or fill out our simple contact form.
