Preface

During my postgraduate degree in Chemistry I became enamoured with polymer chemistry. Over the following 40 years I have consistently been involved in the formulation, production and usage of solvent based resins across 4 continents in positions ranging from Technical Services Manager, Technical Manager, Sales Manager, Production Manager, Site Manager, and General Management.

As a professional chemist I have always enjoyed the complexity of some of the resin formulations and the plethora of end uses. As with many other subjects, the depth and breadth of chemistry is enormous, and one can rarely, if ever, say that there's nothing left to learn.

Within the confines of these pages I have hoped to provide some of the basic raw materials used in resins, how to evaluate those which are most suitable for a particular application, and how to combine them into formulations for a specified target market

As such, this website is aimed at providing a more comprehensive guide to the practical formulation and production of resins: from raw material selection through to finished product.

This website is not a substitute for the many texts that are already available, and does not include any new developing aspects of polymer chemistry. Rather it is designed to provide sufficient knowledge of the individual resin types to be able to formulate, and produce, commercially viable products.

Introduction

'Surface coatings' or otherwise just simply known as 'coatings', or even more simply 'paints', are ubiquitous across many aspects of everyday life. They are used in architectural, general industrial, household and automotive applications, to name but a few areas of application. It is the aim of this website to provide more information on the composition of coatings, with specific focus on the component that is generally termed the ‘The Binder’, ‘Resin’ or ‘Polymer’, that is the common ingredient in the majority of solvent based coating systems, and contributes significantly to the performance properties of the coating.

Audience

I have attempted to keep this website as broad as possible for a wide audience. Within the confines of the website is information that might be considered pertinent to:

• Home and building owners, who are interested in what to expect from the performance of the paints they are using.
• Architects and other coating specifiers, requiring the optimum finishes for their projects.

The more advanced topics might be beneficial to:

• People involved in the marketing and sales of resins and coatings.
• Students studying undergraduate chemistry or specialised courses in polymer science
• Paint Chemists requiring more in-depth knowledge of the binder components they are using.

The data on specific polymer types has been split into 2 major sections for each resin type:

• General: Suitable for casual readers and those and those who want a little more information on the selection of coating types.
• Chemistry: Suitable for university students, paint, and polymer chemists.

This website contains quite a sizeable amount of information on different resin types used in the coatings industry. I have attempted to keep a certain amount of the informations comprehensible to as broad an audience as possible, by limiting the chemistry of these polymers as much as possible except in those areas where the actual chemistry is unavoidable.

Please note that there is still a lot of information still to be added to this website so please regard it as a 'work in progress'. Additionally, there will be revisions on the contents of this website as the current contents are more or less 'off the top of my head' at present. In other words, if the contents are found beneficial, it might be worth while reopening the website on a weekly, or so, basis, to see what has been added and/or updated.

To gain more background into what the website comprises, and if further reading might be useful to the individual concerned, may I suggest that potentially interested viewers first read the Coatings section which provides a general synopsis of the various resins that are described on this website.

Please note that there are a number of fairly large tables within the website and the web pages are best viewed on larger screens as found in tablets, laptops and computer monitors.