Self-cleaning fluorocarbon coating for steel bridges for the first time

COSCO Kansai Paint Chemical Company announced on February 13 that its first self-cleaning fluorocarbon coating developed using PTFE technology was successfully applied to the “First Bridge in the Northeast” Liaohe River Bridge. This is the first time that high-performance fluorocarbon coatings have been applied to bridges with steel structures in China, marking another technological breakthrough in the field of coatings and industrial anti-corrosion and opening up new applications for fluorocarbon coatings.

The Liaohe River Bridge is the largest bridge spanning the area north of the Yangtze River and is also the first large-span steel box girder bridge in China's first snow-covered and frozen area. As the first large-span steel box girder bridge in China's snow-covered and frozen areas, the bridge puts high demands on weatherability and construction of protective coatings. The self-cleaning tetrafluorocarbon coating was selected based on its excellent weather resistance, self-cleaning properties, excellent stain resistance, and excellent workability in extreme environments.

COSCO Kansai, a large-scale coating company jointly established by COSCO International Holding Co., Ltd. and Kansai Paint Co., Ltd. of Japan, focuses on achieving secondary innovation based on the introduction of technology. Using the core technology of Kansai, Japan, they successfully developed a self-cleaning tetrafluoro-FEVE fluorocarbon coating with a hydrophilic surface in 2010. The product uses a hydrophilic surface anti-fouling principle and uses special hydrophilic additives. After the construction, the surface of the coating film can be hydrophilized and self-cleaning characteristics can be maintained for a long period of time after construction. Rainwater can be used as a natural resource. Self-cleaning.

According to the technicians of Kansai Kansai, the tetrafluoro-FEVE resin is a copolymer of fluoro-olefins and alkyl vinyl ethers, and the copolymerized FEVE fluorocarbon resin has higher fluorine content, and the fluoro-olefins and alkyl vinyl ethers are Strictly alternately arranged, the fluoroolefin structural units in the molecule have relatively low bond energy and are easily protected by ultraviolet-destroyed vinyl units, so the weather resistance is better. Accelerated aging experiments show that the self-cleaning FEVE fluorocarbon coating using tetrafluorocarbon technology has the same weather resistance as the conventional FEVE fluorocarbon coating and is higher than the polyurethane coating. Since the beginning of the 21st century, 90% of domestic key bridges for design or renovation have been designated for coating protection with fluorocarbon coatings.

Zhao Xiaodong, chairman of the China Chemical Society's Fluorine Coatings Special Committee, told reporters that low-carbon environmental protection, energy conservation and emission reduction are still an important task for the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan”. In this context, fluorocarbon coatings with ultra-high weather resistance and long durability, especially newly developed self-cleaning fluorocarbon coatings, have broad prospects for development. They are not only widely used in high-speed railway networks, highway networks, large buildings, and high-end industrial anti-corrosion projects, but also in the field of wind power. It is reported that COSCO Kansai Coatings has taken the lead in launching a fluorocarbon anticorrosion solution for wind power towers, including an upgraded wind power self-cleaning fluorocarbon coating.