Application
Energy and renewables
Erosion, water and sunlight
The situation
Wind blade leading edges, photovoltaic frames and mounting hardware, battery housings and outdoor energy equipment where rain, sand and ultraviolet light do the damage.
What fails today
- Leading-edge erosion of blades is mechanical, so a coating that is only hydrophobic wears through anyway.
- Films that are too hard crack when the substrate flexes, and water enters the crack.
- PV soiling films that need cleaning to work defeat their own purpose.
- Outdoor films fail on the frame or the fastener rather than on the panel.
Grades for this duty
How to apply it
For a flexible surface choose a grade that stays tough rather than the hardest one available.
On a blade the coating goes on the leading edge first: that is where the erosion is.
Cure at ambient if the part cannot be moved; warm the surface rather than the air.
Prime bare metal frames; the polymer surface usually needs only cleaning.
How to qualify it
- Erosion by a rain or particle test on the real laminate, not on a metal panel.
- Adhesion to the gelcoat by cross-cut, before and after water immersion.
- Ageing under xenon arc to ISO 16474-2 with the gloss and contact angle measured at intervals.
- Flexibility: a blade surface bends, so a hard film that cracks on flexure has failed the application.
Bring your substrate and your target; we quote a grade and a cure schedule against it.
Next step