Comprehensive Coatings Guide for Construction Industry

Cortec Corporation (St. Paul, Minn.) has released an online coatings guide designed specifically for the building maintenance and construction industries. The guide gives a quick intro to Cortec Micro-Corrosion Inhibiting Coatings (MCI) Technology, and it also includes information on how and where to apply the coatings. The company designed the guide to help engineers, contractors and maintenance crews easily protect structural steel and metal equipment around their facility or construction site.

The new guide briefly outlines a critical part of coatings success—how to properly apply a system. For best results, this includes good surface prep (for example, rust removal), optional rinsing and the final application of a primer, plus topcoats. Cortec says many of its coatings can be applied directly to metal, and some can function as metal primers, topcoats or even intermediate coats for more flexibility. The brochure includes a full coating system application example to show how this might be done.

The new construction coatings guide also lists specific features for each primer and topcoat. These characteristics can mean the difference between which coating will be used inside versus outside, in a strong chemical processing environment versus a dry warehouse and so on. For example, some workers will place the most importance on low VOC or water-based coatings. According to Cortec, the one- or two-part nature of coating systems can also factor into the equation, as some users want to go quick and easy with 1K coatings, while others require the cross-linking advantages of a 2K coating.

The coatings guide brings all the coatings together with a comprehensive chart of recommended system combinations for different applications. It also offers multiple primer/topcoat combinations that go well together and specific examples of where they can be used.

The coatings guide can be accessed at Cortec MCI’s website.