Achieving Reliable Concrete Protection
(in Severe Industrial Environments)

Industry Overview

For the past several years, interest in chemical resistant coatings for concrete surfaces has been at an all time high.
All of the manufacturers recommended their product for this application and were confident that their product would work satisfactorily. The surface preparation and product application was carried out as specified by the manufacturers and under their supervision.

The Results

An astounding 50 of 61 products failed miserably in this mild test.
Most overlayments for concrete are based on polymers (epoxies, polyesters, phenolics, and vinyl esters) which have a thermal coefficient of expansion of up to 10 times that of concrete.
Then after a 25ºF increase in temperature the epoxy slab would be nearly 1/2" longer than the concrete slab.
With this in mind, it is clear that any temperature changes (thermal cycling or thermal shock) will stress the bond between the coating and the concrete, eventually shearing the weak surface layer of the concrete.
Shrinkage, age embrittlement, poor UV stability, excessive loading with sand, diluents which adversely effect chemical resistance and pigments which can not resist the chemicals for which the products are specified.

Performance Numbers vs. Reliability

The most common failure of overlayments is delamination - neither a higher temperature resistance nor a greater compressive strength will make the system more reliable.

Thermal Coefficient of Expansion

There are only 2 ways to address this problem; make the overlayment move similar to the concrete (matched coefficient of thermal expansion) or make the overlayment extremely flexible.
Flexible Overlayment was not practical
The approach of designing for failure minimalization is what makes the ARC Composite for Concrete different from all others.

Regal Industrial Corporation
P.O. Box 291
98 E. 1st Street
Donora, PA 15033

724-379-6440
Fax: 724-379-9001
Email: info@regalindustrial.com