PDA Europe News
2 April 2009, Maastricht, The Netherlands
Polyurea at UTECH Conference
At the UTECH Conference 2009 held on April 2 in Maastricht, The Netherlands, a full morning session was dedicated to polyurea. This session was organized and promoted by PDA Europe and featured different aspects of the technology: raw materials, industrial applications and several case studies. Member companies of PDA Europe presented recent developments and success stories.
Werner Bertleff, BASF SE and Board Member of PDA Europe, opened the session welcoming an audience of about 50. Bernd Dietz, of REMA Tip Top and current president of PDA Europe introduced in his presentation the technology with a special focus on how it compares to other elastomer technologies and he also outlined PDA Europe as an organisation.
Then Geert Dries of Huntsman showed how new MDI prepolymers contribute to increased chemical and mechanical resistance of the elastomer films. Stephan Göttke, BASF SE, shed light on the various amines making up the resin compound of polyurea. Focus was especially on new amines providing for excellent light stability of the coatings. In his contribution Christian Bruchertseifer of Dow Germany, showed various examples of polyurea spray applications with outstanding long-term resistance to chemical attack. The second part of the session was dedicated to applicators and was opened by Dominique Smits from DeNeef Conchem. In his presentation the focus was on concrete renovation and he impressively documented how polyurea can help to speed up jobs and reduce downtimes to a minimum.
A case study of a polyurea coating of a secondary containment for a storage area of chemicals was presented by Cees Moorman of Elastogran B.V. He led the audience through the entire process starting from surface preparation to the final result. The contribution by Mr Kim, Kangnam Chemical Co., South Korea, showed impressively the growing importance of polyurea especially in Korea where he reported some of the biggest polyurea jobs ever done worldwide.
Intense discussions took place and many new contacts were made in the breaks where people had the chance to serve themselves with information material about polyurea, the PDA Europe and the upcoming PDA Europe Annual Conference in November. Organizer David Reed stated that the polyurea session added enormous value to the biggest gathering of polyurethane experts creating additional awareness for this versatile technology.
PDA Europe members interested in the full presentation may contact PDA Europe by e-mail.