With stringent environmental and health regulations, waterborne coatings are increasingly replacing solventborne paints. Significant advances have been made: new waterborne epoxy resin and amine curing agent technologies provide excellent corrosion resistance when appropriate two-component (2K) formulations are used.
In the specific case of epoxy primers enriched with zinc for extra corrosion resistance, the challenge of incorporating a very high weight (often 80-85%) of zinc powder into an epoxy/curing agent binder system is compounded by zinc’s reactivity with protic components such as water, acidic solvents and dispersing aids.