Waterborne alkyd resins solvents

Field trials have shown that the expected durability of the new waterborne coating systems is equal to that of conventional solventborne paints. As a further advantage, the number of single coats can be reduced from three to two. Standard freight cars are painted with a three-coat alkyd system consisting of an anticorrosive primer, an intermediate coat, and a topcoat, total DFT is ca. 150 pm. Such systems are being replaced by single-coat systems of waterborne acrylic resins and acrylic copolymers to reduce solvent emission. 

In commercial use since 1927 [18], alkyd resins are among the most widely used anticorrosion coatings. They are one-component air-curing paints and, therefore, are fairly easy to use. Alkyds are relatively inexpensive. Alkyds can be formulated into both solvent-borne and waterborne coatings. 

Whilst there are some thermoset acrylic emulsions cormnerdally available, the bulk of the thermoset resins, used as the main binder system, are produced in solution. Some may then be made waterborne by neutralisation and inversion (dispersion) into a water phase. Lower molecular weights favour this qrproach. The rate of conversion from solvent based to waterborne industrial thermoset coating systems has been, and is, much slower than the conversion from architectural alkyd paints to emulsion altonatives. There are two principle reasons for this. Firstly there are problems of application and substrate wetting of many waterborne systems. Secondly, the modifications frequently required to induce water dispersibility reduce one or more of the essential performance properties required from the cured film, compared to a solvent based system. Water resistance, with many films having an increased tendency for blushing is one example. However, for some applications, such as electrodeposition, only waterborne systems will work. 

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