EU construction materials legislation an opportunity for polyurea practitioners

European Union-led changes to construction material documentation was a key theme at the seventh annual Polyurea Development Association (PDA) conference in Rome. Jane Denny reports. 

Held late November 2013, the event attracted around 120 delegates including polyurethane suppliers, application machinery developers and polyurea practitioners from all around the world.

Huntsman and BASF representatives were among the heavyweight chemical companies represented at the event, which also featured exhibitors from machinery and chemical suppliers and an outdoor polyurea application demonstration.

The conference was also used to mark the inauguration of PDA’s new president Elisabet Michelson – the first female voted to the PDA top spot, Norwegian Michelson replaced Carles Royo, from polyurethane projection machinery maker Gama.

CE Marking opens Euro-construction door

Kiwa Polymer Institute’s general manager Jurgen Magner outlined new European legislation governing the use of materials within the construction industry.

Explaining the changes he said would “lead to the future of construction industry regulation” he focused on its potential impact on the polyurea sector – “over-regulation or a chance for polyurea,” he asked.

“We must ensure know we about the hEN, the Harmonised European Standard.” He warned delegates that “perhaps within six months” business leaders will have contact with representatives from new Product Contact Points – or the “construction products police” he said.

The new bodies are to be implemented across Europe under Construction Products Regulation (EU) No 305/2011.

Once the regulation is in place, materials will need an ITT (Initial Type Testing) and a Life Cycle Analysis certified by a Notified Body (NoBo), said Magner. The Euro-wide consistency of NoBo processes and comparability of supplier’s information was a potential plus for business, he suggested. He added that the Kiwa Polymer Institute in Florsheim, Germany, is a NoBo

“Until now, the CE marking was just an entrance to the European market showing a product conforms to the norm. It provided low level familiarity with a product,” he said. Conversely, and despite the barrier to market created by the legislation, he said the new system presents manufacturers, importers and dealers with the opportunity to advertise a product’s outstanding characteristics.

The new Product Contact Points will provide market participants with access to the national technical prescriptions for construction products and information on the rules for the incorporation, assembling or installation for a specific construction product. Germany’s NoBo - the Federal Institute for Research for Products - operates to “improve the free movement of goods and facilitate access to the national market,” he said.

Declaration of Performance

“The DOP (Declaration of Performance) is the basis of everything now,” said Magner. It documents a product’s performance in relation to the essential characteristics of the construction project for which it is being distributed. “It is key for the CE marking,” added Magner.

He told delegates that  the document has to be available in print or online and in the language of the country in which it is being distributed.  This is  a development, Magner indicated, that could help exporting businesses attract new custom. He said the DOPs will “grant a better comparability of all products in Europe” because they allow the business to advertise any outstanding characteristic of the product.

As a final word Magner raised the new EU basic requirement No 7, which documents a product’s environmental impact and sustainability. Magner said the EN 305 EU Construction Industry Regulations’ will influence how businesses recycle materials after demolition. “It is a sword of Damocles hanging above us all,” he said.

“I am sure that polyurea and all polymers will be affected by this requirement. Be aware that it will raise some questions for you,” he added.

Ethacure 90 vs water

Bayer MaterialScience AG’s Karl Wuehrer, a manager and senior engineer at the company, updated delegates on developments with BMS's fast-setting aliphatic 2K polyurea. This had changed because the product's reactivity enhancer and performance modifier - Albermarle’s Ethacure 90 chain extender – was withdrawn last year.

Wuehrer’s presentation Polyaspartic Coatings Technology explained how BMS is optimising cure technology for polyurea to incorporate the ‘ideal 60-minute pot life’ and the sprayer’s preference for a five to ten-second cure time into the same product.

The audience enjoyed the revelation that the aliphatic curative alternative is water. By switching to water, Wuehrer said the reactivity can be modified within a wider range right down to a two-second pot life and the high content of tixotropic additives reduced to a normal level.

Faced with the lack of technology to allow solvent free roller coating application, Wuehrer said BMS’s Desmophen had made the goal a reality with the addition of a polyisocyanate.

Desmophen NH 2850 XP is still a trial product which offers a good pot life to curing ratio said Wuehrer, it also has colour stability.

The system has a variable cure speed of between 20 and 40 minutes, near-zero VOC and forms a hard, durable film with very good abrasion resistance added Wuehrer.

At the start of the development project in 2011, the challenge stemmed from the near impossibility of producing a solvent-free flexible, easy-to-use material for roller applications due to the material’s high viscosity, he said.

Wuehrer also told delegates, BMS is at development stage with a Desmodur E range product which matches the elongation properties of polyurea waterproofing membranes. The product has not yet been named, he said adding BMS is committed to “research into new polyaspartic resins and low viscosity polyisocyanates.”

Polyurea vs Derbigum 

A presentation by Elmico’s project leader David Brown showed how the small systems house worked as part of a collaboration to breathe life into Norwegian infrastructure. The Scot's born engineer worked onsite himself to avoid the multi-thousand pound fines imposed if it went over schedule.

The EUR23m ($31m) contract to refurbish Oslo’s ailing metroline included the rehabilitation of rail stations, two bridges, a tunnel and three underpasses, said Brown, a mountain-face chemical injection specialist.

Completed in less than four months, Brown said penalties attached to specific parts of the contract could easily have topped EUR 249,000 as they had been levelled EUR80,000 for every day the project went over schedule. He and his fellow contractors agreed between them “if we are burning, you are burning” but they were exciting times as some aspects were scheduled for completion in less than two days.An Elmico product waterproofed structures adjacent to the 23-mile stretch of rail track and provided protection against salt penetration, corrosion and disintegration. A 2mm to 3mm layer of polyurea was applied to the bridge.

To waterproof the Kares Vei underpass, Brown had been directed to use Derbigum – a cheaper material often used as a roofing membrane - but he told the conference: “If we had not used the polyurea, we would never have made the deadlines.”

Safety

Erik Vangronsveld, Huntsman's PU industrial hygiene EAME technical manager and PU EHS issue manager, advised on keeping polyurea practitioners safe and contamination-free. A little known danger for those working with polyurea, he told the delegates, is that it is possible to cross-contaminate when removing protective gloves.

He advised anyone working with polyurea spray to practice removing gloves in a safe way ensuring that any traces of polyurea on the gloved hand doing to the removing does not come into contact with skin.

He also raised the issue of practitioners and their masks, Vangronsveld said: “The face-testing of masks – to ensure that masks are not leaking anything – will become more and more standard in the industry.”

Vangronsveld also discussed the important role supplied air will play in the polyurea sector of the future. “Supplied air is the way that things will come to be done in the future,” he said.

He reminded the delegates of the potential dangers of working with polyurea spray. Irritation around the throat and mouth area and experiencing breathing difficulties are signs that a person may have been overexposed to polyurea.

Reach guidelines, he said, advise that anyone working with polyurea undertake regular lung function tests. He said that in future there would be a move towards the use of sealed air safety systems whereby polyurea practitioners are fed a clean air supply through a mask. He highlighted improvements in the fitting of masks, which he said would in future be designed to tailor itself around the workers particular facial features.

He told delegates that sometimes symptoms can occur 24 hours after exposure but added that for 50% of the population a 12mg /kg body weight exposure to PMDI – the same number of fatalities that could be expected from a 2mg/kg exposure to Vitamin C. Watering eyes and an itchiness of the skin are among the signs to look out for he said.

However, Vangronsveld also warned that safety is “more than 80% behaviour-related” and he urged managers to lead by example.

Outside the conference hall, a fully health and safety-compliant polyurea sprayer demonstrated the smoothness of the coating on a range everyday items such as a traffic cone and tiling.

As the conference came to a close, Michelson set her goals and ambitions as president of the growing association. She said she was keen to foster more collaboration in the industry and encourage all participants within the polyurea supply chain to work together to ensure the success of projects.