Positive Displacement Proportioning of Two-Component Epoxy Intumescent Coatings for Passive Fire Protection

In today’s protective coating industry, there is a growing demand to proportion and spray 100% solids coatings that are high viscosity and composed of materials that make them compressible during processing. Epoxy intumescent fireproofing is one such material that starts as compressible in the pail, and becomes more compressible when heated and agitated under air pressure. This can be a problem for a proportioning machine that meters by volume. When using plural component equipment, if a material is compressible, equipment parameters may have an impact on the spray applied mix ratio. Factors include agitation, feed pressure, spray pressure, temperature, material composition and compressibility. These factors are not often understood and for most high solids coatings, compressibility has subtle to no impact. But, when a material is viscous enough to entrap air, equipment design and set-up factors may have an impact on coatings performance and end-properties. After the session, applicators, material suppliers, inspectors and clients will better understand the different portioning technologies that exist and explain their ability to handle these materials. The goal is for the audience to understand the more technical aspects of plural component proportioning and to provide guidance to material suppliers as they formulate new products.