COATINGS

A very large proportion of the articles, structures and manufactured goods that we meet in our daily life are coated. Polyurethanes are present in most of the high quality, long lasting coatings used in a wide number of applications such as:

• Automotive Coatings, applied both as original equipment (OEM) and in car repair.Transportation applications such as aerospace, railway equipment, trucks and buses.
• Agricultural, construction and earth moving machinery.
• Plastic articles and components: bumpers, wheel covers, rear mirrors, door handles as well as phones, computers, skis, hifi equipment, kitchen ware.
• Wood Coatings: parquet flooring, heavy duty and high quality furniture for kitchen, school, counters.
• Maintenance & Protection Coatings: heavy industry anticorrosion (metallic structures), high performance decorative finishes.
• Marine: superstructure, topsides and decks of ships and yachts.
• Coil & Can Coatings: buildings (cladding and roofing), appliances, transport, packaging.
• General Industry: motorcycles, bicycles, metal office furniture.

The main benefits given by aliphatic isocyanates based polyurethane coatings are:

• UV and weathering resistance: exceptional gloss retention and non-yellowing, even after a very long exposure time;
• excellent balance between hardness and flexibility: this property is especially of interest to achieve stone-chip resistance required in Automotive coatings or extreme flexibility necessary in Coil applications where coated steel is embossed to obtain complex shapes;
• outstanding chemical resistance, particularly important in coatings for aircraft where very aggressive hydraulic fluid is used

Therefore, polyurethane-based coatings are used to answer to the highest requirements in terms of chemical and technical performance.

ADHESIVES & SEALANTS

Adhesives are indispensable for manufacture of many daily life products, and aliphatic isocyanate based raw materials help adhesives to meet high demands.

Derivatives of aliphatic isocyanate are usually used as crosslinkers for 2 packs adhesives. Furthermore,aliphatic isocyanate monomers are employed to make urethane based polymers which can be formulated in hot-melt, heat-activated or contact adhesives. The main applications are: wood on wood, PVC lamination on wood, automotive, footwear and construction. The benefits are mainly to improve heat resistance and to achieve a better resistance to moisture and water, as well as a better adhesion on fat or oily substrates.

Aliphatic isocyanate based raw materials are also used in sealants for applications in the construction industry. Durability, resistance and stability, also incritical areas, are the key specifications for these products.

ELASTOMERS AND OTHER APPLICATIONS

Aliphatic isocyanates are also base materials for polyurethane elastomers. These high-quality engineering materials are used e.g. for rollers and belts and in a manifold of applications where high load-bearing capacity, durability, elasticity and chemical resistance are required.

Some other applications: Leather finishing formulations, Textile & Fibre treatments, Inks, Optical and other special applications also use aliphatic isocyanates in order to mainly provide protection and durability.