Introduction 

The Devcon range of abrasion-resistant coatings are proven to protect surfaces from wear caused by material moving through it, including rocks passing through a chute or a gritty slurry moving through a pump. But what if the material is striking a surface from above instead of sliding, such as crushed rock falling into a hopper? This phenomenon is known as impact and next generation Devcon coatings are designed to protect equipment from both slide and impact wear and damage. 

A trade-off between Impact and Abrasion Resistance: Can we have our cake and eat it too? 

Ceramic tile is often used for surface protection in highly abrasive environments such as ore processing plants. A ceramic tile will resist abrasion from objects sliding past but breaks easily if hit by a hard object like a rock or a hammer. Conversely, a soft material such as fabric or leather will not shatter when hit and will instead quickly be destroyed by scraping against a rough surface. Creating a coating that will do both of these things, resist sliding abrasion and not shatter if hit hard, is a challenging problem to solve. At ITW Performance Polymers, we have found success with this through our epoxy based wear resistant coatings.  

Devcon Technology Offers Solutions 

To get the best of both worlds, our R&D team developed an epoxy-urethane hybrid coating, Devcon Wear Guard™ High Impact. This ceramic bead-filled coating combines the impact resistance of flexible urethane with the abrasion resistance of hard bead-filled epoxy. The scientists behind the Devcon brand subsequently designed Devcon DFense Blok®, a coating made of a continuous network of hard epoxy resin containing microscopic particles of rubbery materials. This breakthrough advancement has even better impact resistance than Devcon Wear Guard High Impact, while maintaining outstanding abrasion resistance.   

As we continue to meet our customers’ needs, Devcon WearGuard 300RTC™ is one of the newest formulations from our innovation team. This coating combines the impact and abrasion resistant technologies of Devcon DFense Blok with a highly chemical and heat resistant epoxy novolac resin. This chemical resistant coating protects equipment in the most extreme environments.   

These advanced coatings are a major step forward from first-generation, bead-filled epoxy abrasion-resistant coatings that struggled to handle falling objects.    

Devcon Minimizes Costly Shutdowns 

Devcon coatings are proven to stand up to extreme impact and abrasion conditions in a variety of equipment including hoppers, chutes, and grinding mills, handling crushed rock in the mining industry, or debarking drums handling logs weighing thousands of pounds in the lumber and paper industries.  Equipment exposed to simultaneous extreme impact and abrasion wears out quickly, and many plants simply run this equipment to failure and accept frequent shutdowns and replacements. Devcon epoxy wear-resistant compounds are a cost-effective solution to prolonging the life of equipment and minimizing plant shutdowns.   

Replacing a worn-out grinding mill or debarking drum can shut down a plant for days, but a piece of equipment receiving a protective Devcon coating may be returned to service in as little as 2-3 hours. When the Devcon coating eventually wears out, it can be replaced many times during the extended lifespan of the protected equipment. The cost of these coatings is trivial compared to the revenue lost during an extended plant shutdown.  

Conclusion 

The main points of learning about Devcon wear-resistant epoxy coatings is that: 

• Devcon advanced coatings combine outstanding impact and abrasion resistance, properties that are often mutually exclusive. 
• Devcon Wear Guard High Impact and Devcon DFense Blok are ideal choices when impact and abrasion are encountered together. 
• Devcon Wear Guard 300RTC simultaneously withstands impact, abrasion, chemical attack, and high temperatures. 
• Devcon’s impact resistance coatings prolong the life of equipment and minimize expensive plant shutdowns. 

Contact ITW Performance Polymers Technical Services for help choosing the best industrial coating solution for your unique situation.