FORMULATING INDUSTRIAL WOOD COATINGS WITH A NOVEL FORMALDEHYDE-FREE CROSSLINKER TO REPLACE CONVENTIONAL AMINOPLAST CROSSLINKERS

摘要

Current environmental and health concerns about formaldehyde are driving conversion away from formaldehyde generating coatings to new, more environmentally friendly systems. This is especially prevalent in the wood office furniture and kitchen cabinet markets. All of these new systems involve higher formulated costs and or substantial capital investment. Most alternatives also involve a significant shift to a new coatings technology. Recently however, a new formaldehyde-free crosslinker has been developed which is compatible with solvent-borne alkyds, can be heat cured and can be used with current application and curing equipment. The application of this crosslinker, and its ultimate film properties, are explored in this paper.rnSpecifically, a new formaldehyde-free, amino based crosslinker has been developed which formulates and performs in a similar fashion to conventional solvent-borne urea/melamine-based amino crosslinkers. Although there is an increase in formulated cost, this development minimizes the investment in new equipment and minimizes the need for training for coatings formulators and cabinet manufacturers when they make the change to a formaldehyde-free coating. The net impact on the cost of the finished wood product will be relatively small and the coating system will be familiar to those who use current alkyd/amino coatings technology.rnA kitchen cabinet formulation, applied to a wood substrate and cured at various cure schedules, will be compared to a standard amino crosslinker system using testing protocols found in the Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Association (KCMA) standard.