What Is Epoxy?

Many people who hear or read about it for the first time ask themselves the question: What is resin?

This question can best be answered by listing its special properties. The properties listed below refer to the firmly cured state after mixing and curing. Depending on the manufacturer and product, this state may not be reached until after about a week. You will generally find more detailed information on this in the manufacturer’s instructions directly on the packaging of your components. Sometimes it appears much earlier as if the casting resin has already completely cured. In many cases, the chemical transformation takes much longer than expected.?However, once the curing process is complete, the following positive properties apply to almost all products:

• Very high abrasion resistance
• Generally high material strength
• Insensitive to impact (does not shatter or splinter)
• Usually a low shrinkage during the conversion from liquid to solid
• Density values of around 1.2 grams (per cubic centimetre)
• Good UV resistance with correspondingly high-quality products
• Adheres well to almost all materials (for example also to wood)
• High heat resistance
• Acts as an electrical insulator
• High acid resistance
• With careful substrate preparation: hardly any cracking of the epoxy resin
• Good weathering resistance in outdoor areas
• High-quality epoxy resin is also hardly or not at all flammable in the liquid state.

Epoxies (also called polyepoxides) are an important class of reactive thermosetting resins that contain at least one epoxide group. The resins can be reacted (cross-linked) either with themselves through catalytic homopolymerisation or with a wide range of co-reactants including polyfunctional amines, acid anhydrides, phenols, alcohol, and thiols. The co-reactants are often called hardeners or curative, and the crosslinking reaction is commonly referred to as curing.

Thermosetting polyepoxides are known to have high temperature and chemical resistance. When cured with a curative, the mechanical and thermophysical properties depend on the type of curative and on the epoxy to curative mix ratio.

The most common and important epoxy compound is the?diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A?(DGEBA), which is formed from reacting epichlorohydrin with bisphenol-A. The industrial grades normally contain some distribution of molecular weight, since pure DGEBA shows a strong tendency to form a crystalline solid upon storage at ambient temperature. Another very important epoxy resin is?diglycidyl ether of bisphenol F?(DGEBF). This resin is less viscous and yields thermosets of greater flexibility and toughness. On the downside, the resin is somewhat more expensive.

Epoxy resins are used across almost every industry. Important applications include metal coatings, potting compounds and encapsulations for electronics and electrical components, and thermal interface materials. They also find uses in fibre-reinforced plastics, coatings and structural adhesives. Due to their excellent heat and corrosion resistance and outstanding bond performance, they are widely used in the automotive and aerospace industry for demanding applications.

Epoxy Flooring, in a nutshell, is?a type of synthetic resin floor system that is laid on top of concrete substrates?as a form of protection and decoration. The systems can comprise several layers of thermosetting resin that are coated, trowelled or poured, and generally applied onto a concrete substrate.