Moisture-cured coatings promise to save time and money in in-service water tank painting projects. But these unique coatings found very limited use compared to conventional coatings products, three decades since the first of such formulations have been released to the industry. Many moisture-cured coatings development were stalled for years mainly because of problems in formulation stability, erratic adhesion performance, unreliable corrosion resistance, and the complexity of production requirements, to name a few.
While water tank painting continue to bear the costly consequence of draining the content during coatings application, because of the inherent incompatibility of conventional coatings when exposed to moisture, moisture-cured coatings research went on at manufacturers’ laboratories. The researches aim to overcome the problems in resin technology and produce the best formulation stabilizers, additives and pigments.
In recent years, the researches bear fruit and new breeds of moisture-cured coatings were released to the market — coatings that overcame the problems and resulted to more advanced features that provide a better solution to marine and in-service water tank painting.
The new coatings do save time and cost during water tank painting. For one, the single-component systems have no pot life limit and have no need for any induction time before being applied. The coatings can be applied even in the highest of humidity and at the same time capable of curing properly even at below-zero-degree temperatures.
The impact on water tank painting projects is significant: increasing productivity, decreasing the preparation and cleaning time, and improving the speed of project delivery to a large degree.
