The 6th International Congress on Transportation, Traffic and Safety Coatings

Automotive Coatings

When deciding what kind of paint is best when re-finishing a car, there are lots of factors to consider. Obviously, the aesthetic appeal is of utmost importance -no one wants a paint job to look sloppy- but other things to keep in mind include the application process, drying time, potential health hazards, and base-coat and finishing options. Acrylic and urethane are both common automotive paints but have distinct and significant differences.

Since its start in 1924, Automotive OEM Coatings has been at the forefront of innovation, combining expertise in coatings and special effects technologies with analysis of industry trends to aid automakers around the world in enhancing the image and identity of their vehicle brands.

many innovations arrived to introduce breakthrough automotive coating technologies such as cathodic electrocoat, powder clearcoat, compact paint systems, and factory-applied spray-in bed liners.

Pavement Markings and Traffic Coating

Road surface marking is any kind of device or material that is used on a road surface in order to convey official information. They can also be applied in other facilities used by vehicles to mark parking spaces or designate areas for other uses. Road surface markings are used on paved roadways to provide guidance and information to drivers and pedestrians. Uniformity of the markings is an important factor in minimizing confusion and uncertainty about their meaning, and efforts exist to standardize such markings across borders. However, countries and areas categorize and specify road surface markings in different ways.

Road surface markings are either mechanical, non-mechanical, or temporary. They can be used to delineate traffic lanes, inform motorists and pedestrians or serve as noise generators when running across a road, or attempt to wake a sleeping driver when installing in the shoulders of a road. Road surface marking can also indicate regulation for parking and stopping. There is continuous effort to improve the road marking system, and technological breakthroughs include adding retroreflectivity, increasing longevity, and lowering installation cost.

Aviation Coatings

Organic coatings are primarily applied to aircraft for environmental protection and appearance. The rate-controlling parameter for the corrosion of aircraft alloys, excluding the mechanical damage factor, is the degradation time of the protective coating system.

This clearly indicates the importance of the coating system's durability and its ability to control corrosion and erosion. Relative to appearance, commercial aircraft benefit from the aesthetic characteristics of the coating system, while military aircraft rely on camouflage properties to minimize enemy detection and tracking during mission operations. To meet operational requirements, aircraft coating systems traditionally consist of a primer and a topcoat.

In addition, specialty coatings are strategically applied to perform various functions such as protection against rain erosion, chafing, immersion in fuel, and high temperature. A number of factors affect the performance of aircraft coatings, including the substrate material, the aircraft's operational environment, and flight conditions.

Aircraft structures and skins are manufactured from numerous metallic alloys and polymeric composites with a variety of pre-paint treatments, thus complicating the adhesion and corrosion inhibition characteristics of the coating system. Environmental conditions also can vary dramatically.

Marine Coatings

Marine coatings are a type of protective coating used mostly in the marine environment to protect ships, vessels, tankers, and other materials from saline water or freshwater. A marine coating has specific functional properties, therefore it can provide superior protection to the surfaces to which it is applied. This coating protects submerged materials as well as vessels, ships, or yachts from seawater.

Marine coatings protect materials from corrosion and abrasion. The world marine coatings market was forecasted to be US$11.88 billion by 2020.

In a marine environment, pitting corrosion and bacterial corrosion are most likely to occur. Marine corrosion has a significant impact on sea carriers and their longevity. Every year, billions of dollars are spent to protect against marine corrosion. Therefore, effective corrosion control strategies should be chosen with the appropriate selection of coating for a marine environment. Marine coatings have special functionality to protect marine vessels and other carriers above and below the waterline. Marine coated surfaces are easily cleanable.

Marine coatings come in four types:

Anti-fouling coatings

Anti-corrosion coatings

Foul release coatings

Others, self-cleaning and self-polishing coatings

Fire Protection and Intumescent Coatings

An intumescent is a substance that swells as a result of heat exposure, thus increasing in volume and decreasing in density. Intumescents are typically used in passive fire protection and require listing, approval, and compliance in their installed configurations in order to comply with the national building codes and laws.

The details for individual building parts are specified in technical standards which are compiled and published by national or international standardization bodies like the British Standards Institute (BSI), the German Institute for Standardization (DIN), the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) or the International Standardization Organization (ISO).

Intumescent Coatings for steel constructions must be approved in standardized fire tests.

Passive fire protection materials insulate steel structures from the effects of the high temperatures that may be generated in the fire. They can be divided into two types, non-reactive, of which the most common types are boards and sprays, and reactive, of which thin film intumescent coatings are the most common example. Thin-film intumescent coatings can be either on-site or off-site applied.

Pipe covered with a thin-film intumescent spray fireproofing commercial product called UniTherm. When the flame from a blow-torch is applied, the intumescent sodium silicate expands, forming a layer of insulation which slows down heat transfer to the pipe underneath. Hydrates within the coating give up their water content, maintaining a temperature near the boiling point of water, 100 °C. The critical steel temperature is ca. 540 °C. Once the water is spent and enough heat has gone through the char, the steel can reach and exceed its critical temperature and then lose its strength. The time this takes determines the fire-resistance rating.