For the past 54 years Altex Coatings has been manufacturing industrial and marine coatings tailored to the New Zealand maritime climate and specific industrial environments such as dairy and dairy processing, meat processing, pulp and paper mills, fertiliser plants, aluminium smelters, fisheries and latterly over the past 20 years the demanding environments of the off-shore and on-shore oil industry.

From day one Altex has developed its own unique products with a number of industry ‘firsts’; however this home grown technology has been, and will continue to be, strengthened by strategic licensing agreements with globally renowned technology leading industrial coatings manufacturers.

From time to time there is a need for sector-specific coatings that cannot be matched by existing technologies. Such demands are the ‘stuff of life’ and challenges to be met head on by the Tauranga based Altex R & D and Technical Services groups.

A perfect example of such a specific development is Altex’s “Altra~Max”.

Altra~Max is generically classified as an “Ultra-High Build Epoxy” (UHBE), a category for advanced epoxy coatings capable of being applied to in excess of 1000 microns (1 mm) in a single coat. This class of coating must have excellent abrasion, impact, and water resistance as a basic minimum.

Formulating easily applied and practicable UHBE coatings is not easy and consequently such coatings have tended to have bad press with painting contractors who are often required to have highly specialised and expensive equipment to apply such coatings.

The challenges that Altex faced in the development of Altra~Max UHBE were to meet the minimum criteria mentioned above plus provide a coating that could be applied using industry standard airless spray equipment and meet a number of performance requirements laid down by a multi-national oil company for the protection of underground tankage, LPG bullets and similar critical equipment.

Altex’s R & D team accomplished all these requirements including critical testing and approval for applications requiring a stable coating resistant to cathodic disbondment – a major area of concern for operators of underground pipelines, off-shore structures and similar quasi immersion services requiring cathodic protection.

Altra~Max has some unique attributes unmatched by similar UHBE products:-

· Flexibility and impact resistance coupled with substrate adhesion in the order of 1000 psi (7 MPa)

· Tested 80ºC hot water resistance for in excess of 8000 hours

· Accelerated salt spray – Q-Fog Prohesion – zero blistering or corrosion – 4000 hours

· Very high volume solids and free of HAPS (Hazardous Air Polluting Substances)

When Altex introduced Altra~Max UHBE to the market 4 years ago it was immediately embraced by specifier and applicator alike. Since that time Altra~Max has been used in many diverse and heavy duty environments including:-

· Buried and tidal structures for the oil exploration and production industry

· High wear hydraulic structures such as hydro generation turbine guide vanes

· Slurry tanks for the mining industry

· Buried hydro penstock externals and internals

· Primary filling and wear coating for vehicular tunnel lining refurbishment

· Waste water treatment plants
And the list goes on!

Just one example of 54 years of coatings know how from a wholly owned New Zealand company distilled into a unique advanced technology heavy duty coating.

As published in Engineering News, November 2008
Download the product datasheet below for more information.

Altra~Max UHBE PDF Data Sheet