Bayer: Science For A Better Life - research

Solvent-free coatings for parquet floors

A top-class finish

Tough test: Juan Miguel Garcia examines the damage to a floor coating caused by the shoe sole pendulum.

Tough test: Juan Miguel Garcia examines the damage to a ﬂoor coating caused by the shoe sole pendulum.

Parquet flooring is fashionable. New products that make wood coatings particularly hard-wearing are needed so that floors stay beautiful for longer and the burden on the environment is reduced. Researchers at Bayer MaterialScience are putting wood coatings through some particularly challenging tests and are refining established raw materials to make them better all the time.

Recycled solvent

The new solvent-free polyurethane dispersions have been on the market since April 2005. The finished coating raw materials do not contain solvent, but it is nonetheless an indispensable part of the manufacturing process. The solvent is completely removed from the product after the raw material has been synthesized, and it is then cleaned and returned to the process. This is an approach that has been used successfully for years in the production of adhesives and textile coatings. The following text describes how water-borne coatings are tested and recent developments in this field.