POLYUREA VS. POWDER COATING
How To Choose Between Two Leading Coating Technologies
WHICH IS BETTER:
POLYUREA
OR POWDER COATING?
Polyurea vs. powder coating; an all too common debate that often leads to more questions than answers. The two technologies have become commonplace across numerous industries, often for the very same applications. But, this then begs the question: if they can be used for the same purposes, how do you choose between them, and which is better? Some people look to the fact that powder coating is the older of the two technologies, which can make it feel like the safer, more established option. However, while polyurea is indeed a more recent innovation, it’s already made a name for itself as one of the best high-performance, all-purpose surface protection technologies.
WHAT ARE POLYUREA COATINGS?
Polyurea, or polyurea spray elastomer technology for all the coatings experts out there, is one of the most durable protective coatings available on the market, and brings combined flexibility and versatility that have elevated it to the top of the industry. A simple two-component system, polyurea is produced on-site by mixing and reacting reagent materials with high-pressure spray equipment. This spray on application makes coating almost any surface a breeze, and can easily accommodate difficult to reach areas or unusual structures. Moreover, polyurea’s ease of application is complemented by its rapid curing time, which leaves new installations ready in only minutes after applying. Polyurea is also safer and more sustainable thanks to its solvent-free and VOC-free formulation, it can be tailored with specific physical properties like UV resistance, it’s chemically inert and resists everything from water to caustic industrial chemicals like sulfuric acid – and the list goes on! Polyurea has become renowned as a premier protective technology, and the reasons why are clear; it’s the ultimate all-in-one solution for protecting surfaces from weathering, abrasion, and beyond!
WHAT IS POWDER COATING?
Powder coating is a popular coating process that currently represents as much as 15% of the total finishing market. It’s based on polymer resins combined with one or more types of modifying agents and additives, which are processed into a uniform solid powder. Like polyurea, powder coating makes use of a spray on-type application methods, but rather than using high pressures, it uses electric charge in techniques including electrostatic spray deposition (ESD). In this method, powder particles are charged and deposited onto surfaces, which are then heated to cure. The result is a durable finish with excellent hardness that’s proven a mainstay of the coatings industry.
SO, WHICH IS BETTER?
While there’s no doubt about powder coating’s continued utility and historical role as a key technology, the answer is clear: Polyurea is the better overall protective coating for most applications of functional coatings. There are myriad reasons for polyurea’s prominence, which can be summarized with five key benefits:
ELONGATION AND ELASTICITY
The standout difference between polyurea and powder coating is their varied flexibility. Polyurea exhibits far superior elongation and elasticity, whereas powder coating is highly rigid and leaves little room for adaptability. Forceful impacts or extreme temperatures risk damaging or destroying powder coatings, whereas polyurea can withstand pretty much anything.
SUPERIOR STRENGTH
The strength of a material is often conflated with different but related characteristics like hardness. The difference is that strength measures how much stress can be applied to a material before it permanently deforms or fractures, and hardness measures a material’s resistance to surface deformation. So while powder coating is plenty hard, it’s not nearly as tough as polyurea, which can resist powerful impacts with little sign of damage or distress. In fact, for this reason polyurea is even used for many military applications like blast mitigation !
CURE SPEED
Polyurea is perhaps best known for its rapid curing time, which can be more than ten times faster than traditional powder coating. Even more importantly, polyurea cures without the need for heat or additional processing. This allows polyurea to be used far more extensively than powder coating, and without the need for additional equipment or a time-consuming curing regimen.
CORROSION RESISTANCE
While powder coating is often touted as an excellent choice for corrosion resistance, the reality is that its greatest strength is also a key vulnerability in the fight against corrosion. Powder coating is exceptionally hard, but this also means that it’s more brittle than other technologies. This makes powder coatings susceptible to corrosion after only minor damage has occurred, whereas polyurea provides a watertight and chemical proof barrier that makes corrosion all but impossible.
REPAIR AND MAINTENANCE
Polyurea is easy to repair, just as it’s easy to apply in the first place. Thanks to the powerful and easy to use nature of high-pressure spray equipment, repairs are quick and effective. This is in stark contrast to powder coating, which can’t be easily repaired using the same technology, and typically relies on traditional fillers and paints that don’t perform as well as the material they aim to replace.
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FAQ FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Polyurea is a better choice of protective coating for many different applications because of its improved elongation and elasticity, superior strength, faster curing times, more robust chemical resistance, and ease of application and repair. It’s a long list, but that’s how many advantages polyurea coatings have over traditional solutions like powder coating.
Polyurea offers all the strength, durability, and hardness that one expects from an industrial strength protective coating. So no, polyurea does not scratch easily, and in fact - polyurea doesn’t scratch, break, tear, rip, shred, fracture, dent, deform, degrade, or otherwise damage easily at all! Give it a try, and see why it’s being used for everything from truck bedliners to military blast mitigation.
Polyurea’s unique benefits also introduce their own set of disadvantages. Polyurea is renowned for its rapid curing time, which reduces downtime, but makes it more likely to leave imperfections or mistakes unidentified and unaddressed. The two main types of polyurea - one UV resistant and one not - also make choosing the right formulation more confusing, and may require more expensive formulations.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
TYLER GLECKLER
I am a chemist with a specialization in nanotechnology and applied materials chemistry. My work has focused on the characterization of optoelectronic materials, namely including semiconductor nanocrystals.
