Safeguard concrete structures against corrosion

 Construction chemicals industry which generally caters to the chemicals used for coatings of concrete structures, which can either be new or repaired. Concrete coating forms a part of waterproofing systems, that are used for flooring as well as anti-carbonation protective coating systems. This process of coating helps to protect the concrete and accordingly prevents corrosion of reinforcement in all type of concrete structures.

Today the keywords in construction are durability and sustainability. Concrete structures  are being designed with a 100-150 years design life for infrastructure and metro projects. This class of design lifecycles can only be reach if the concrete is been protected with the correct protective systems. The company clams that their coating systems themselves have shown a aliveness which excess for more than 15 years on some structure. Hence if the coating can last for that long, then the structure it protects may have almost inexhaustible lifespain.

MC-Bauchemie offers the following coating systems to safeguard concrete structures against corrosion:
Thick Coatings (1-2 mm): These are Breathable waterproof cementitious polymer modified coatings – This product systems include Zentrifix Elastic, Dichtament DS-flex and the crystallization based Dichtament DS2 System.

Application areas include: Marine Structures, Wastewater Treatment Structures, Wet areas in bathrooms and building construction, terraces, Interior Walls of water tanks, etc.

Elastic-Elastomeric, Anti-Carbonation, Breathable, Crack bridging, UV Resistant coatings (200-300 micron thickness): This Product Systems include the EmceColor-flex and Betonflair Systems.

Application areas include: Exposed Concrete Structures like bridges, power plants, fair face finished building walls, external faces of water tanks, etc.

Breathable Hydrophobic impregnation coatings, based on silicone, silane-siloxane: This Product systems include Nisiwa SH, Emcephob SX, Emcephob AC and the Betonflair CT System.

Application areas include: Masonry facades, natural stone facades, decorative plasters, low abrasion resistant floors, etc.

Resin Based Coatings: This product systems include the MC-DUR range of Epoxy Coatings for a variety of purposes.

Applications areas include: High chemical resistant concrete applications, low pH concrete applications, etc. where there is no water movement / osmosis.

Benefits
The application of protective coating is an attempt to increase the effective cover of concrete in terms of both quality and quantity. By virtue of their formulations, anti-carbonation protective coatings provide the protection quotient of meters of concrete cover in a very thin layer. Therefore the principle of equivalent cover is very valuable both in repair
strategies and even to safeguard new structures that have a very long design life.

Several benefits can be obtained by incorporating the surface treatments in a well-designed manner right from conception of project. Although the main function of any surface protectant is moisture ingress control, the coatings can also be designed for resisting chemicals, Chlorides, diffusivity of carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and oxygen. Root and vegetation growth can be prevented in concretes under damp conditions.

Another benefit is, these protective coatings provides equivalent cover to concrete. For e.g. MC’s Zentrifix-elastic at 2mm thickness provides a cover equivalent to 72 cm of well-compacted M30 Concrete. The company’s EmceColor-flex system which at 331 micron thickness provides a cover equivalent to 74 cm of well-compacted M30 Concrete. The application of these materials in terms of waterproofing or protective systems thus becomes imperative.