Water borne epoxy resins and curing agents

Solvent based epoxy systems have been the foundation of industrial and maintenance coatings for many years.  In recent years, strict environmental regulations around the world have called for their waterborne replacements.  Now the driving force for development and adaptation of waterborne epoxy coatings no longer just come from legislative requirements, but also from consumer demand, pushing the science frontier of waterborne epoxy coating technology to a new level.  Using the new waterborne epoxy resins and curing agents, coupled with new formulation technologies, formulators are now able to significantly narrow the performance gap between conventional solvent borne and waterborne epoxy coatings.  For some applications, performance of waterborne epoxy coating is essentially at par with, or better than, their solvent counterparts.