Discussion on the influence of new industry standards and VOCs tax on the development of Waterborne

Coatings, that use water as solvent or as dispersing medium, can be all referred to as waterborne coatings. Waterborne coatings include 3 kinds of water-soluble coatings, water-dilution coatings and water-dispersible coatings (latex coatings). Water soluble coating takes a water soluble resin as a film, polyvinyl alcohol and a variety of modified materials as the representative, in addition, there are water soluble alkyd resin, water soluble epoxy resin and inorganic polymer waterborne resin, etc..

In order to standardize and improve coating enterprise production process and technical indicators, to promote the progress of coatings industry, the Ministry formulated 14 relevant standards of coatings and pigment industry, to regulate the healthy development of the whole coating industry.

The introduction of the new standards will help to enhance the overall level of the development of the domestic coating industry, and also is made to meet the growing environmental needs of society. The new standard contains a large number of technical indicators designed to reduce VOCs emissions and environmental pollution.

There has always been an argument about the water replacing the ester in coating industry. The implementation of coating consumption tax last year has also been thought to lead to changes in the coating industry. On February 1st, 2015, after the implementation of a 4% consumption tax on coatings that contain more than 420 g / L VOCs (including), processes of the traditional solvent-based enterprises to turn into environmental protecting waterborne and powder products is irreversible.

More and more consumers in the market also believe that the traditional production concept of coating products are not suitable for the environmental needs of contemporary society, while waterborne coatings are the ideal coatings who meet the new concepts of environmental protection and healthy life.

Among the many waterborne coatings, waterborne polyurethane coatings, waterborne epoxy resin coatings and waterborne acrylic resin are the most watched fields, and on June 1st, 2015, 3 waterborne industrial coatings products standards, HG/T4761 - 2014 "waterborne polyurethane coatings", HG/T4759 2014 "waterborne epoxy resin anticorrosive coatings," HG/T4758 - 2014 "water acrylic resin coatings", will be formally implemented. The implementation of these standards will be an important milestone in the development of waterborne industrial coatings in China.

New standard of HG/T4761 - 2014 "waterborne polyurethane coatings" applies to air-drying coatings, bicomponent or one component and high temperature baking polyurethane coatings that take water as the dispersion medium, polyurethane resin as the main film-forming material, adding pigment filler (no varnish), applying additives to the surface of metal, cement mortar, concrete and other inorganic non-metallic substrate with a decorative and protective function.

At present, China's market of waterborne polyurethane coatings has just begun and has not formed a scale. But with the whole society’s promotion of environmental protection consciousness, especially the stricter and stricter national environmental regulations on the requirements of the content of VOCs in the coating, and the development of technology and gradually reducing raw material costs, waterborne polyurethane coatings will meet the vigorous opportunities of developing.

HG/T4759 - 2014 "waterborne epoxy resin anticorrosive coating" is applicable to waterborne epoxy resin anticorrosive coatings used for metal substrate, respectively putting forward related technical requirements to primer, intermediate coating and top coat.

Among the anti-corrosion coatings used for steel structure, epoxy coatings accounted for a large proportion. The traditional solvent based epoxy coatings produced a large amount of volatile organic compounds in the process of production and construction, thus the development of waterborne epoxy resin has been put on the agenda.

Although the waterborne epoxy resin has been studied for more than 25 years and waterborne epoxy coating has been applied for more than 10 years, from the point of the whole application, waterborne epoxy resin and waterborne epoxy coating have not formed the large-scale production and application. At present, the quality and the protective effect of anticorrosive waterborne epoxy coatings in the market are not satisfactory and lots of coating accidents happened.

The introduction of new standards regulates the production, construction and application of waterborne epoxy resin coatings, which will promote the technology progress and market penetration of these coating products.

HG/T4758 - 2014 "water based acrylic resin coatings" applied to waterborne one or two component coatings taking acrylic resin as the main film forming material, the product of which is mainly used for the decoration and protection of surface of metal.

Waterborne acrylic resin coatings are used not only in industrial or civil areas, but also in many cases as the protection for cements and woods.

This kind of waterborne coating, whether from the point of environmental protection, performance or price, has a more competitive ability, including weathering, reducing the content of volatile organic compounds, etc.. In foreign countries, the product has a considerable degree of popularity. It has also been more and more widely applied in many areas.

There are many kinds of waterborne acrylic protective coating products in the market. In the past, due to that there were no uniform standards and norms, the quality, environmental protection requirements and construction quality of these products are uneven. We believe that the introduction of the new standards will quickly change the status. In fact, with the current situation of the development of the industry, there is still a long way to go for the overall popularity of waterborne coatings. As we all know, the pace of national environmental protection is urging the industry to complete the transformation to environmental protection industry. The extensive situation of high-pollution coating industry will also be expected to be further improved. The new standards of related policies are also boosting and gradually releasing the market potential of waterborne coating. Waterborne coatings are promising.