Focus on energy savings and ‘green’ technologies with Perstorp’s offer for polyurethanes
Included in Perstorp’s line-up are products that reduce the need for solvents in formulations, while at the same time improving their performance. They include:
- Tolonate® used to formulate high-performance polyurethane coatings, with exceptional durability, outstanding chemical resistance and mechanical properties. This product line includes some fast drying grades, and low viscosity products to provide better productivity of the painting process.
- Easaqua™ (previously Rhodocoat™) self-emulsifiable polyisocyanates, used as cross-linkers in easy-to-use waterborne polyurethanes that provide effective and “greener” alternatives to solvent-based coatings;
- Capa® polycaprolactones, which reduce the need for solvents thanks to their exceptional low viscosity, while giving outstanding flexibility at low temperature and exceptional abrasion resistance to polyurethane formulations. Recent tests showed that PUDs using Capa® are more durable than the ones based on adipate polyesters;
- Boltorn® W3000, a high molecular weight amphiphilic, air-drying resin with powerful dispersing and surfactant properties. An addition rate of under 2% of Boltorn® W3000 to a solvent-based alkyd paint formulation allows up to approximately 15% of water to be added to it, enabling a reduction in volatile organic compound (VOC) content and reducing the environmental impact of the formulation as well as its cost.
Perstorp expects the advantages offered by these products to be of considerable value to formulators, especially as energy and solvent costs have increased significantly in recent years. The company’s plans include a capacity expansion for isocyanates, with the first additional volumes available in 2012, and the doubling of the production capacity of its caprolactone range.
“From this unique platform of technologies, we are now developing more complete systems,” says Eugénie Charrière, Perstorp Market Development Director in Coatings & Adhesives. “We are a true specialty materials supplier for our partners in the polyurethane coating industry. Particularly when it comes to the formulation of low-VOC polyurethane coatings, we are putting our customers at the forefront of development.”