SEAL FOR LIFE INDUSTRIES STOPAQ®
The original inventor of visco elastic coatings based on polyisobutylene was the Dutch company called Frans Nooren Afdichtingssystemen BV, that later became famous as a company called STOPAQ® . It was around the 1980s, when the innovation driven Frans Nooren grew to be an expert in watertight sealing systems. At that time they where involved to apply seals for the protection of wet quays and basements walls against water penetration around conduits and pipes. His ambition was to develop solutions that are friendly to both humans and the environment. Ultimately, due to fatal family accident, his drive was to create a non-harming or dangerous anticorrosion coating. His persistence resulted in the creation of a 100% self-sealing and healing compound within a system. Since 2005 under new leadership it grew rapidly into a 23M EURO business in 2012. The slogan was SealforLife. This slogan became the company name for the parent firm. Stopaq became the home for tapes, sleeves and other liquid-curing pipeline coatings. Nowadays, the plant in Stadskanaal also produces for other SealforLife brands such as Wrapidbond. Stadskanaal is also the home for OxyFree.
You can find more information about STOPAQ® here ( STOPAQ® is a member of Corrosion Alliance). An interesting paper, presented during CeoCor, can be found here.
SEAL FOR LIFE INDUSTRIES BRAND WrapidBond®
Wrapidbond is a wraparound corrosion protective coating consisting of a modified and reinforced visco-elastic adhesive applied onto a polyethylene carrier film. Supplied in roll form, WrapidBond® provides superior corrosion protection by providing a barrier to water and oxygen. WrapidBond® is for use on underground pipelines, and steel structures. The system has selfhealing capabilities.
VISCOTAQ™
VISCOTAQ™ is part of the English company Winn&Coales. VISCOTAQ™ offers a viscous-elastic solid polyolefin-based layer for corrosion prevention of underground and aboveground substrates. For instance the VISCOWRAP-ST is part of a 2-layer system that consists of a corrosion protective inner wrap (VISCOWRAP) and mechanical protective outer wrap that can be a PE, PVC or PU composite outer wrap.
Stopaq Amcorr partly owned by Kleiss &Co from Holland was originally established in June 2000 in San Antonio, USA. The firms continued under the name Amcorr selling viscoelastic coatings and sealants in the corrosion industry. Within 2021, Winn & Coales International Ltd acquired VISCOTAQ ™ products, and thereby they became part of the the well known DENSO product family.
You can find their website here.
ALLTER®
ALLTER® is a Belgium based brand that started to manufacture various kind of emission-free coatings as alternates to zinc, butyl primers, epoxies and so called visco-elastic coatings. ALLTER®, a brand of www.greenhard.world is driven by ideals to stick to 30 years warranty, selfhealing and with a contractor’s mindset. They think that it is time for a change in the coating industry, both with respect to durability and sustainability. With their team of competent Dutch Developers and global sales network, they have created a collaborate 160 years of experience in the coating sector, with the power to shift the industry into the next gear. They are firmly convinced that change is possible, and that a new, different approach to future-proof total solutions is what is needed.
Several members of the original STOPAQ® and management of SealforLife Industries Team, have initiated ALLTER® to create a new vision for the future of coating systems, to strive for more sustainable, non-toxic alternatives. And to strive for a lower carbon impact, taking nature (Biomimicry) as their starting point.
You can find several Allter products on this webshop
Differences and similarities of Visco-elastic coating manufacturers
The above mentioned manufacturers all use the similar approach of having a PIB based compound against a backing layer. All three of these manufacturers are offering their products for use in underground systems, according to the ISO 21809-3:2016, this particular standard focuses on External coatings for buried or submerged pipelines used in pipeline transportation systems. More specifically, it focuses on field joint coatings. All of these coating systems have Extremely low Cathodic disbondment values (0-3mm/0-0,12” to ASTM G8). These type of coatings are well suited for the anoxic subsurface conditions. However, most of these coatings also comply with several atmospheric applications, that are specified in the ISO 12944. This particular ISO standard defines four different categories:
- IM1 fresh water
- IM2 salt and/or brackish water without CP system
- IM3 soil
- IM4 salt and/or brackish water with a CP system (either anodes or ICCP)
It is a good recommendation to ask your local distributor if the selected coating system fits with the IM category. There are significant performance differences between manufacturers.
Differences between these manufacturers are focused on:
- the the purity and the type of polyisobutylene that is being used. This can really influence temperature resistance
- Also different additives used with the polyisobutylene for maintaining the required viscosity can influence the quality
- The backing system can influence properties such as adhesion and corrosion creep. This can be quite different between manufacturers and will influence properties such as puncture resistence and self healing capabilities.
- And last, maybe even most important these days: Pricing can be quite distinctive.