A FINAL THOUGHT

Many companies marketing polyureas are selling on the "sizzle" principle. They are promoting polyurea more on hype and "sizzle" of the properties than the "meat" of the product. Futura has made an effort to develop a full line of polyurea and polyurethane elastomers and systems. This allows Futura the versatility of recommending the most advantageous properties of both polyurea and polyurethane for the application which can most benefit from their specific attributes.

HOW THE TERM "POLYUREA" HAS BEEN MISUSED OVER TIME

The term "Polyurea" is very often misued because not everything containing amines or polyetheramines can be labeled as simply "Polyurea". The composition of an amine or polyether "B" component can vary from as high as 100% to as little as 2%. The industry is now defining that in order for a system to be called Polyurea, the amine or polyetheramine content must be 80% or more. A product is called a polyurethane when the content of hydroyl polyol is 80% or more. When the hydroyl and polyetheramine/amine content falls in between these two parameters then the system can be considered a polyurea/polyurethane hybrid or blend system. The cost premium of the polyurea system over a polyurethane also correlates to the control of the polyetheramines. The raw material cost of the polyurethane is 1 1/2 - 2 times the price of the polyol used in a general polyurethane system. The key factor to be aware of is to be careful when a company has a low price and still claims it is a polyurea. Make sure that it isn't a polyurethane with a few percent of a polyetheramine.

LOOKING INTO POLYUREA'S PAST

Polyurea raw materials first showed up in the late 1970's early 80's in automotive RIM (Reaction Injection Molding) applications. Structural polyurethanes and related materials saw their advent in automotive RIM applications because the polyurethane parts could be pulled out of the mold in a matter of minutes. The polyurea technology was intially introduced in RIM (Reaction Injection Molding) applications and produced super tough, heat resistant parts that could be used for high impact resistant applications like car bumpers and some body facia. Initially, polyureas had problems in the RIM industry because the systems were too fast. Which means, it was difficult to inject into large parts because the material would gel before filling the larger molds. This problem was solved by first altering materials raw material chemistry. And second, higher output equipment was developed which could fill the molds before the material gelled. In the early 80s, Futura began introducing new series of solventless, fast cure polyurethanes for a number of markets. The markets included the sprayed polyurethane foam (SPF) market, plastic composites and the industrial protective coating markets. Along with the introduction of this new, solventless technology,

(by Futuracoatings Inc. St Louis MO USA)