Silicon-free
During the last few years, our company found a not-too-insignificant number of manufactures of synthetic resins, varnishes and other coating material. These manufacturers include also paint-shops and their involved enterprises. We achieved remarkable success through installations, apparatus, components and services supplied by us, because we are aware that we can offer our customers products of the highest standard only through accurate planning in engineering, use of high-quality material, efficient storage, trouble-free production processes, and detailed final assembly in order to ensure reliable acceptance and commissioning of a plant.Despite extreme care, customers sometimes face problems with the surface characteristics of varnish coats with the result that end users in the paint shop have a tough time. Unfortunately, the cause of contamination lies with the possibilities within the long chain of involved enterprises much before the paint shop. In this respect, PURPLAN wishes to assure its customers as part of our service that we have done everything to the best of our knowledge so as to prevent such contaminating substances from sneaking into your production processes and thus affect the installations or components supplied by us. In this respect, we endeavour to be constantly in touch with you which would be beneficial mutually.
Polyol
The name polyoles is given to a group of organic compounds containing several hydroxyl groups (-OH). They are the primary reactants of isocyanates. Polyester polyoles or polyether polyoles are used in manufacturing polyurethane.
Toluene diisocyanate (TDI), especially 2,4-TDI, is one of the most important isocyanates, and an important intermediate product of the plastic industry. Apart from other isocyanates, TDI is an ideal base substance for polyaddition reactions, and is primarily used for manufacturing foams (polyurethanes).
Resins, hardeners
Resins are more or less liquid products composed of different chemical substances, and are for instance used for manufacturing paints, soaps, drugs and turpentine. In the industrial sector, primarily synthetic resins are used. Applications, in which the solidity providing and adhesive characteristics are used, like for adhesives and glues, are typical. Another typical application is the use for finishing and sealing of surfaces, but also the use for moulding.
According to DIN 55958 (from December 1988), synthetic resins are manufactured by polymerisation, polyaddition or polycondensation reactions. Synthetic resins are usually composed of two primary components. Mixing both components (resin and hardener) provides the reactive resin bulk. Viscosity increases while hardening, and once the hardening process is completed, you'll obtain an infusible (duroplastic) plastic material.
Synthetic resins (or short resins) are often processed in casting processes. The casting resin is poured into a reusable or lost mould, in this case.
In most cases, pourable bulk materials, which are processed in a warm moulding process including an immediately following irreversible hardening process at increased temperatures for obtaining moulded parts and semi-finished products, are called hardenable moulding compounds. In this process, often high pressures are required for completely filling the mould.
Binders
Binders are substances, by means of which solid materials separated into fine consistency grades (e.g. into powders) are glued with each other or glued on top of a substrate. Binders are in most cases added in liquid form to the filler substances to be bound.
Both substances are mixed intensely, so that they distribute evenly and that all particles of the filler substance are evenly moistened with the binder. By selecting a certain type of binder, the filler substance can be provided with new processing and material characteristics.
Glues, bitumen
Bitumen is a naturally existing material appearing in different types of rocks and almost nonvolatile. The so-called mineral pitch is an adhesive and sealing substance, and shows elastoviscous characteristics, depending on the temperature. In toluole, bitumen is almost entirely soluble. By using the vacuum distillation process, bitumen can also be derived from oil.
This material is for instance used in order to protect sensitive materials from water, since bitumen is practically insoluble in water. It is chemically nonreactant to non-oxidising acids and bases, but strongly reacts with oxygen in the event of a fire.
Bitumen primarily consists of high-molecular hydrocarbons and contains, apart from them, chemically bound sulphur, oxygen, nitrogen and some traces of metals. As a thermoplastic substance, it becomes brittle when chilled, and runs seamlessly through all states from solid via semifluid to thin fluid when heated. With increasing temperatures, it slowly starts to disintegrate. It has no clearly determined melting point, since the components of this hydrocarbon mixture have different melting points.
Acids and bases
In the narrower sense, acids are all compounds able to transmit protons (H+) to a reactant — they can also act as proton donators. In a watery solution, the reactant is basically water. Hydroxoniums (H3O+) are formed and the pH-value of the solution is decreased, as a result.
Acids react with so-called bases (alcaline solutions or so-called lyes are in the narrower sense watery solutions of alkali hydroxides, like for instance of sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) or of potassium hydroxide (caustic potash). In the broader sense, the term is also used for any solution of bases.) under formation of water and salts. That means, a base is the counterpart of an acid and may be able to neutralise it.
Catalyst
A catalyst in chemistry is a substance which influences the reaction speed of a chemical reaction without being itself consumed in that process. This happens by reducing the activation energy. Catalysts change the kinetics of chemical reactions without changing their thermodynamics. They accelerate the chemical forward reaction and backward reaction likewise, and as a result, don't change anything in the equilibrium of a reaction.
Fire protection
Fire protection agents (or fire retardants) are substances which restrict, slow down or prevent the propagation of a fire. Fire protection agents are applied in all those cases, where potential sources of ignition are present, amongst others in complex plants of the resin manufacturing and chemical industry.
Water-contaminating substances
Many substances used in private households and in the commercial sector are water pollutants. Water pollutants are substances that can cause serious health hazards if they infiltrate into groundwater, ground level bodies of water, into a waste water treatment plant (sewage plant) or simply into the ground.
Therefore, it is our duty to take effective precautionary measures against pipeline leakages by constructing secured pockets and additional collecting mechanisms and other safety devices. This will particularly enable us
- to prevent harmful substances from contaminating water or water treatment plants in case of leakages and, if they still infiltrate into a body of water or waste water system,
- to as much as possible minimize the damage and contain the harmful effects and
- to concretely identify the water-contaminating substances and categorize them into different water hazard classes (WGK 1 — 3) according to the degree of hazard. Basic guidelines formulated by the federal government, classification of water-contaminating substances
The federal government has centrally specified, within the framework of the Articles 19g ff. Water Management Act (WHG), the following basic requirements which are concretised by the federal state laws.
Installations for handling water-contaminating substances
- must be designed, constructed, erected, maintained and operated in such a manner to avert contamination of bodies of water or to preclude any harmful change of its properties; in general, they must comply with the commonly accepted regulations of technology.
Installations that have no subordinate role in safeguarding bodies of water must be
- permitted by governmental authorities,
- inspected by the operators before commissioning them in the course of self-supervision and, additionally, once every 5 years by authorised supervisors,
- erected and maintained only by recognised technical personnel (obligation of specialised company).
Implementation of the Water Management Act (Wasserhaushaltsgesetz - WHG)
The federal states are the competent authority to implement the Water Management Act (WHG).
Towards the end of 1980s representatives of the federal states in the inter-state body concerned with water brought out a draft ordinance on industrial installations intended for handling water-contaminating substances and on specialised companies (Download: Muster-VAwS), during the subsequent years these ordinances were duly incorporated in the respective federal state laws.
Based on this, the federal states have formulated their specific ordinances pertaining to industrial installations (VAwS); they shed light on aspects as to
- how installations intended for handling water-contaminating substances need to be protected (basic obligations),
- which installations must be notified to the federal authorities (duty of disclosure),
- exceptions allowed for specialised companies,
- how and which installations need to be supervised by recognized experts (obligation of inspection),
- to what extent restrictions are imposed on installations in sensitive areas subject to water management regulations (requirements in protected areas of sources of water and mineral springs, areas susceptible to flooding),
- procedures for reporting to authorities about incidents of hazards (hazard report).
Future ordinances on industrial installations issued by the federal government (Bundes-VAwS)
Following the reforms of federalism, the subject of water pollution control concerning installations and materials will be covered in future by the federal laws. Henceforth, regulations will be specified in the section of the Environmental Code (UGB) dealing with water. The ordinances of the Federal states will be replaced by Federal ordinances regulating industrial installations (Bundes-VAwS). Presently the Environmental Code (USB) is being drafted; thereafter, the federal ordinances regulating industrial installation (Bundes-VAwS) will be drafted and publicised soon.
