antifoul


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John Hainsworth
John Hainsworth
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Is your resin water based allowing it to be mixed with copper powder and used as antifouling on a fibreglass boat?
Dravis
Dravis
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I think the short answer is NO... All the EC stuff are Epoxy or Polyester resins ..    But the EC staff will know precisely ..

"Sapere Aude"... Dare to KNOW!

The written word is the only truly efficient vehicle for transmitting a complex concept from mind to mind...

103% of all people do not understand statistics...

Do not adjust our mind, theres a fault in reality :-)
John Hainsworth
John Hainsworth
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I want to create my own antifouling mix using epoxy resin and copper powder.

Could you recommend a suitable resin and powder together with prices
brainfart
brainfart
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Some of the commercial copper antifouling manufacturers claim to use "low solids water based epoxy resins" as the binder for the copper powder, which I translate into an epoxy resin/paint diluted with water and lots of copper powder of a specific particle size. The epoxy slowly erodes in use and constantly exposes fresh copper.
The epoxies we use here aren't diluted with any solvents, and they are incompatible with water, so the resulting antifouling will behave differently than the commercial variants (not necessarily worse!).

There seem to be some maximum allowable copper content in certain countries, but since the chance of someone removing epoxy samples from your boat and analysing them for copper content is slim it might be beneficial to use higher concentrations (OF COURSE only if this is legal in your area). A common recommendation is 2kg copper powder and 1 kg of standard epoxy resin, which happens to be the maximum allowed amount of copper in certain places.

West System recommends 80% copper and 20% resin, but doesn't call this antifouling but "base coat" to be used for other coatings:

http://www.westsysteminternational.com/en/additives/west-system-425-copper-compound.html

Now imagine you "forget" applying the other coating, I'm pretty sure such a high copper loading would work fine protecting your boat's bottom against scratches and a lot of other things... 'nuff said.

Another interesting link is this one, especially the comments section:
http://www.yachtmollymawk.com/2012/04/search-for-effective-environmentally-safe-antifoul/
Edited 10 Years Ago by brainfart
John Hainsworth
John Hainsworth
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Thanks for the info. My last attempt at coating was a 1/1 mix of epoxy and copper powder which has lasted 5 years and now needs touching up and burnishing. I think I'll go for a stronger copper mix this time and keep it well burnished.
brainfart
brainfart
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Copperbot (which is now called coppercoat) is said to be 80% copper, too.
Warren (Staff)
Warren (Staff)
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As already said, our resins are not really designed to be watered down.  Most resins will take a high loading of fillers, albeit the properties will be effected noticably when getting to the high levels discussed here - although that seems to be desired in this case.

In our experience, due to the high density of the copper compared to the resin, you could easily get away with 200% by weight before it becomes unusable.

Warren Penalver
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Support Assistant
Edited 10 Years Ago by Warren (Staff)
Dravis
Dravis
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Old wooden sailing ships used to be "plated" with thin copper plates, nailed to the hull, to sail in tropical waters, and avoid excessive fouling...

Why not glue 0,5 mm copper sheets to the hull using epoxy ???  ... Expensive .. .yes, but very user friendly ... Whistling

"Sapere Aude"... Dare to KNOW!

The written word is the only truly efficient vehicle for transmitting a complex concept from mind to mind...

103% of all people do not understand statistics...

Do not adjust our mind, theres a fault in reality :-)
GO

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