Meeting Review
FSCT AC Series
Coatings for Concrete Conference:
“Coating the World of Concrete”
BY KERRY PIANOFORTE
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
The Federation of Societies
for Coatings Technology
(FSCT) held its Coatings for
Concrete Conference: “Coating the
World of Concrete” February 2 at
the Westin Casuarina Las Vegas
Hotel in Las Vegas, NV. This one-day event was held in conjunction
with The World of Concrete trade
show at the Las Vegas Convention
Center.
The plenary lecture, “Setting a
Standard in the Concrete Coatings
World,” was presented by Heather
Bayne of the Society for Protective
Coatings (SSPC). “Today I am going
to talk to you about the importance
of standards and education in coatings for concrete and the role of
SSPC,” said Bayne.
The focus of her discussion was concrete coating industry standards for surface preparation; the selection, application and performance capabilities of protective coating and lining systems;
inspection; and failure analysis.
“An SSPC Industry Standard is an
established practice or reference
used as a basis for comparing or
measuring quality and quantity as
determined by general or consensus
agreement,” said Bayne. “The industry standard provides exact requirements or describes specific processes
that often include evaluation criteria
to ensure requirements are met and
can be referenced in procurement
documents.” She than went on to outline a number of specific SSPC standards for coatings on concrete.
FSCT’s one-day conference offered technical presentations on the latest innovations
on coatings for concrete.
“SSPC is the only non-profit association that focuses solely on the protection and preservation of concrete, steel
and industrial and marine structures
through the use of high performance
coatings,” she said. “We don’t dilute our
focus by getting involved in other corrosion control technologies. Coatings
and linings are all we do.”
After the plenary lecture the conference broke out into two tracks:
Environmentally Friendly Systems
for Coatings and Coatings Systems
Based on Innovative Technologies.
First up on the environmental track
was “Direct to Substrate (DTS)
Coatings/High Performance (and
Green) Polymer Technology for
Concrete Coatings” presented by Mike
Wildman of Engineered Polymer
Solutions (EPS). He focused on recent
advancements in green acrylic emulsion technology that offer significant
improvements in reducing coating
failures on cementitious substrates.
“Vinyl Acetate-Versaic Acid Vinyl
Ester Copolymer for Exterior Masonry
Coatings” presented by Rajeev Farwaha
of Celanese Emulsions focused on
Va/VeoVA resin technology. “VeoVa is a
monomer of choice for interior and exterior paints because it results in higher
pigment binding power, giving paint
superior wet scrub resistance,” said
Farwaha. “Va/VeoVa emulsions are a
natural choice for use on masonry substrates.”
Other presentations from the environmental track include “Innovative Amine
Curing Agents for Epoxy Resins for
Concrete” presented by David Fernee,
Hexion Specialty Chemicals; “High
Performance, Cost-Effective Waterborne
Epoxy Concrete Protection” presented by
Stephen Monaghan, Air Products and
Chemicals and “Modifying Conventional
Clear Concrete Sealer Formulations to
Meet Low-VOC Regulations” presented
by Jeff Sobczak, Rohm and Haas.
The second track, Coating Systems
Based on Innovative Technologies,
offered a number of interesting presentations, as well. “Waterborne 1K Epoxy
Acrylic Hybrids for Concrete Coatings”
was presented by Laurie Morris of
Alberdingk Boley. “Waterborne coat-
