Hi,
I am planning on making larger moulds(car panels etc) and hoping to do so using the Uni-Mould system, my only reservation is the MEKP Catalyst. As I am from Ireland I cannot get you guys to ship it and I have never heard of anywhere that would supply it.

So my question is what kind of place might supply the catalyst, would an Auto paint specialist stock it?
Or is there an alternative

Thanks in advance

Boat builders, chandlers, canoe places, car body places etc all likely to supply composite materials and hence a usable MEKP.

There is nothing special about the MEKP we supply, you can ask at your local supplier for ‘Standard reactivity MEKP’; brands such as Andanox KP9, Akperox A30, Butanox M50 (Akzo Nobel) are all suitable and very widely available.

Warren Penalver
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Support Assistant

Near me is a building plastics company. They sell Drain pipes, Gutters, Facia boards, UPVC Cladding etc. They also sell roofing Fibreglass. So maybe you have somewhere like that near you. Some places don't like to sell MEKP on its own. Maybe if you have an invoice for the resin they will.

Brian.

I have the same problem here on the Isle of Wight. At my local yacht chandlers I can only buy it 20ml at a time and at a price ten times of that charged by EC! I was lucky and found another way, but it's not so easy to obtain. Some potential suppliers treat it as more dangerous that it really is.

I think the issue is more that potential suppliers are required to pay the duties associated with hazardous products which is likely to be a set figure regardless of quantity, and so if they aren't a big time composites supplier like EC then they pass this cost along and it's much more expensive. 

From a shipping persepctive, MEKP is very hazardous.  The reason is because it's highly oxidising and so, if combined with a fuel (cardboard for example) will produce a potentially explosive mix. Since most transport packaging for smaller consignments is a cardboard box and combination of cardboard and MEKP is potentially explosive, it's easy to understand why transport regulations on MEKP are so strict. In fact, many ferry companies have a blanket ban on strong oxidisers such as MEKP.

That is why it is hard to ship in large quantities. I'd have to check with our DG team but it's possible that in 20ml containers it would come under 'Excepted Quantity' for IMDG/ADR which would explain why these small containers are more readily available.

Warren Penalver
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Support Assistant

Heh, my last shipment of DG's included 2.5L of various types of mekp. The box was obviously not treated very carefully enroute, as it got crushed and leaked about 200ml from each bottle. 

Thanks for the info Warren, it's always good to know what we are dealing with. I didn't know the exact reason for it being banned by the ferry companies. So the way we handle it should be considered too. I now have 5 x 200ml bottles on a shelf in my garage; any special recommendations on what I shouldn't do with it?

Take the lids off and shake it around? 

Cheesy video, but gives you an idea of what could happen in large quantities