The ultra-weatherability of LUMIFLON resins is the reason for their popularity in many exterior coating applications. This question of why they work so well is frequent among our potential customers. The outstanding weatherability of FEVE-based coatings is attributable to the high bond energy of the carbon-fluorine bond. These carbon-flourine bonds have the capability to absorb much greater amounts of UV energy and will keep this energy from affecting the weaker bonds/ linkages in the LUMIFLON polymer structure. This means that it is difficult for the UV energy to generate free radicals in FEVE resins, the method by which degradation of coatings by UV energy is propagated.
Knowing this, you can see why the presence of the fluorine bonds needs to be equally spread out along the polymer backbone so as to insure protection of the entire backbone. The alternating structure created in all of the LUMIFLON resins – every fluoroethylene monomer segment sandwiched between the vinyl ether monomer segments – makes the achievement of a 30-60 year coating attainable.
The laboratory testing of this property is quite extensive. For the accelerated weathering in the laboratory, we utilize the QUV Weatherometer and the Xenon Arc Weatherometer. For the long term outside exposure, we send test panels to both South Florida testing sites and to Arizona testing sites for the EMMAQUA exposure (EMMAQUA stands for “Equatorial Mount with Mirrors for Acceleration with Water”). We also monitor actual LUMIFLON coating applications on structures as they age.
No tags for this post.