Lumiflon FEVE Resins

Thanks to new coating systems, repainting bridges could become a thing of the past. The latest developments include fluoropolymer-based paints that can last more than 30 years without any need for re-coating.

LUMIFLON’s low permeability to oxygen, water and chloride is unchanged after years of exposure to the elements, significantly reducing the opportunity for corrosion to begin on bridge surfaces. In addition, the flexibility and toughness of these coatings also remain unchanged, again reducing corrosion and limiting the risk of damage to the bridge surfaces over time.

Over the years, LUMIFLON resins have outperformed such common coatings as alkyds, chlorinated rubber, acrylics, urethanes and even siloxanes on steel and concrete, significantly reducing total life cycle maintenance costs on major bridge projects. When coatings made from LUMIFLON have been subjected to accelerated weathering tests, they show five times the lifespan of acrylic urethanes and over eight times the life of alkyd coatings. Costs associated with bridge downtime, including increased traffic congestion, are also significantly reduced over the life of the coating.

LUMIFLON has been used internationally on bridges and other structures, with more than 150,000 applications worldwide. In 2000, Japan’ s Society of Steel Construction evaluated LUMIFLON topcoats and found that they could last in excess of 50 years on bridges inland and over 30 years on bridges by the ocean. Five years later Japan’ s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport, along with several engineering organizations now require the use of LUMIFLON resin based topcoats on all bridges in Japan. It has been used successfully on dozens of major bridges in Japan, including the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge (currently the world’s longest suspension bridge, over 4 times the length of the Brooklyn Bridge), and Tokyo’s Rainbow Bridge, which spans Tokyo Bay. While solvent grade LUMIFLON resins are still widely used, recently, new environmentally friendly grades of the resin have been developed. These include water based resins, and solid resins, which can be used to formulate low-VOC and HAPS-free coatings.

natural exposure test on LUMIFLON Miami, Florida (ASTMG7)

EMMAQUA Weathering Test

UV: Mj/m2 (295-385nm)

LUMIFLON resins consist of fluorinated ethylene molecules alternating with vinyl ether segments in their molecular structure (FEVE structure). The fluorine-containing portion of the LUMIFLON resin protects the molecule from degradation by UV radiation, thus increasing its weatherability and adding substantially to the life of the coating. In addition the fluorinated part of the resin also protects against corrosion due to water, oxygen, and chloride when applied to steel, iron, aluminum and other metals.