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Wacker expands Vinnapas range
The Vinnapas 8620 E dispersible polymer powder by Wacker Chemie is meant to adhere to different surfaces including those such as fired tiles with high densities and natural stone products.
01 September 2014
WACKER Chemie, a manufacturer of high-quality innovative chemical raw materials, has expanded its highly popular Vinnapas range with the addition of the Vinnapas 8620 E dispersible polymer powder.
The new dispersible polymer powder is used for modifying modern cementitious and gypsum-based dry-mix mortars, particularly for tile adhesives.
Vinnapas 8620 E, which is based on a novel vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate-ethylene-terpolymer, ensures that tile adhesives adhere well to a broad range of different surfaces, including difficult ones such as fired tiles with high densities and natural stone products – even after heat, water or freeze/thaw conditions.
“The dispersible polymer powder was specifically developed for the formulation of sophisticated tile adhesives of categories C2E or C2ES1 and C2ES2 as per EN 12004 that feature an extended open time and high flexibility. It thus offers users additional formulation reliability,” says Cyril Cisinski, managing director, Wacker Chemicals Middle East.
“Alongside exceptional product and processing properties, Vinnapas 8620 E also exhibits good environmental compatibility, because the product is free of plasticising additives and thus makes it possible to formulate low-emission tile adhesives,” he adds.
Wacker Chemie offers a range of formulations for the construction industry, with its Vinnapas brand as well as Silres BS additives finding applications in almost all aspects of construction such as flooring, paints and coatings, concrete and masonry, adhesives, and roofs.
• Flooring: Wacker offers solutions for tile and natural stone floors, unfinished, parquet, textile and elastic flooring.
Floors are exposed to the heaviest mechanical stresses produced in a building, Cisinski points out, adding that at the same time, they require solutions that take aesthetic and ecological aspects into consideration.
“Currently, the demand for large-format ceramic and natural stone tiles is increasing globally. But as traditional cement-based tile adhesives often have difficulty coping with the demands of modern construction, these products require sophisticated solutions that offer increased adhesion, durability, flexibility, and good open time,” he says.
“Wacker’s polymer binders can support these challenges, as mortars modified with dispersible polymer powders of the Vinnapas brand enable formulations and applications with completely new characteristics and highly specified property profiles. Thus, they enable a wide range of different tiles to be laid fast, easily and cost-effectively.”
• Paints and coatings: These should work to both enhance external appearance as well as protect the buildings internally in an economic manner. Therefore, choosing the right plaster, paint and coating systems potentially helps reduce maintenance costs and conserves a building’s value. Wacker’s vinyl acetate-ethylene copolymer (VAE) dispersions of the Vinnapas brand can be used to formulate low-odour products with less emissions (low volatile organic compounds), while at the same time offering outstanding wet-scrub resistance, good colour fastness, high abrasion and water resistance, and reduced dirt pick-up.
Silicone resin and organosilicate plasters with Silres BS additives, on the other hand, make valuable building blocks for protecting and preserving buildings. They form a network that repels water while the pores remain open to diffusion. Also, they reduce capillary water uptake without affecting the water-vapour permeability and improve abrasion resistance. Various plaster systems benefit from Silres BS additives and Vinnapas dispersions which facilitate processing and enhance adhesion even to difficult substrates.
• Concrete and masonry: Moisture damages concrete and masonry over the long term because it penetrates through the tiny pores spread all over their surface. While these pores allow water vapour to be transported out of the concrete and the masonry, water also soaks into them, exposing them to many dangers. For example, the sodium chloride in sea salt can make its way into the concrete of structures built along the seashore causing corrosion which weakens and eventually destroys the building. Concrete and masonry must be protected against water, salt and carbon dioxide.
Wacker has, therefore, developed special silanes, a group of chemical compounds made of silicones, carbon, oxygen and hydrogen. Formulations containing these compounds provide concrete with special protection against moisture and harsh climatic conditions.
• Adhesives: Since windows and doors are subject to extreme stress caused by variance in temperature and structural movements, seals around them are integral components of a building’s airtight envelope. Wacker offers a broad range of versatile construction adhesives that combine high cohesion, easy processability, high initial tack and dimensional stability when bonding demanding substrates. An additional benefit is the lowered environmental impact: Polymer binders of the Vinnapas product line, specifically, allow for the formulation of low-odour and low-emission end products, enabling environmentally-compatible and long-term durable adhesive applications, Cisinski adds.
• Roofs: Designed to protect buildings, roofs are constantly exposed to sun, rain, and exhaust fumes. Therefore, they need an effective and long-lasting protective surface to prolong their life span and consequently retain the building’s value. In this segment, Wacker offers roof coatings, flat roof waterproofing and heavy clay ceramics protection. While roof coatings ensure lasting protection, flat roof waterproofing offers reliable, environmentally sound and cost-effective sealing. Heavy clay ceramics, however, require an entirely different type of protection because they are vulnerable to unsightly efflorescence, moss, lichen, algae and dirt. Thus, treatment with a silicone impregnation agent based on Silres BS that renders the pores water-repellent provides effective solution.
Doing business in the Middle East since the 1990s, Wacker offers the regional construction industry a particularly diverse portfolio of products that is adapted to local climatic conditions, uses regional raw materials and caters to individual architectural traditions.
Since the ultimate objective is to make buildings and structures fit for the future through enhancing their energy efficiency and protecting them against moisture, the Munich-based company established partnerships with authorities across the region to help develop standards for construction and building materials.
“We co-operate with many government authorities across the GCC to use our know-how and help establish local standards for buildings. We have worked with the Dubai Municipality and shared our expertise through our local training facility, the Wacker Academy. We have also worked with Saso (Saudi Standards, Metrology and Quality Organisation) and King Abdullah University in Saudi Arabia to establish dry-mix standards,” says Cisinski.
The company invests four per cent of its annual revenues in research and development. Its products are characterised by efficiency and innovation.
Cisinski points out that handling technologically sophisticated construction chemicals, however, is no easy matter.
“To provide the regional building trade with tailored developments and the necessary expertise in high-quality construction chemicals, Wacker established a technical centre in Dubai in 2002,” he says. “It further features a dedicated training facility, the Wacker Academy, which provides an opportunity to learn about all the relevant aspects of modern polymer and silicone chemistry and related applications. Besides teaching theory, the academy also covers the practical side, thanks to its location right next door to Wacker’s application labs.”
He continues: “The worldwide construction boom is driving demand for sophisticated specialty products and high-tech applications. After all, quality, innovations and expertise are the key to the construction industry’s long-term success.
“Our technical centre here in Dubai is top-notch equipped and unique in the region. Thus, we are setting new standards in service, advice and transfer of expertise, offering our customers and business partners considerable added value. Today, with partnerships with local and leading international partners, and with our experience in the region, we continue to track mega trends in the construction business, and constantly offer the relevant solutions.”
Established since 1914, Wacker Chemie produces high-quality chemical raw materials that cater to current market needs and shape future trends. It serves a wide range of industries from construction, automotive and consumer care to plastic, paints, food and renewable energies. Today, Wacker ranks among global chemical leaders and the sector’s most research-intensive companies with laboratories and technical centres that come up with new ideas and solutions daily – leading to innovative products that enhance people’s lives.
