Hempel awarded patent for revolutionary low-solvent wind turbine coating system

Tuesday, Nov 13, 2012

The Ultra-High Solids and Speed system (UHSS), a unique two-coat protective paint system for onshore wind turbines produced by leading coatings manufacturer Hempel, was granted a patent from the European Patent Office.

UHSS uses two high-solids coatings to reduce volatile organic compounds (VOC) emissions by up to 70 per cent compared to standard three-coat systems, depending on the system. It also dries up to six times faster than standard three-coat systems, helping wind turbine manufacturers increase productivity on their production lines. UHSS was developed for wind turbine manufacturers who want to increase production
output without increasing VOC emissions.

“We’re very pleased to have been granted a patent for UHSS,” says Anders Voldsgaard Clausen, Group Wind Power Segment Manager at Hempel. “It demonstrates how innovative UHSS really is. This is the result of our strong commitment to R&D, which continues to enable us to help the industry reduce environmental impact and speed up production times.”

UHSS complies with C5-M and C4 categories for corrosive environments. C5 is the toughest standard of corrosion according to the ISO standard 12944. It produces only 396.4 kg of VOCs per 10,000m² (compared to 1373.45 kg for standard three-coat systems). The new coating dries in 3.5 hours, compared to 19 hours for standard three-coat systems.

The UHSS system is available globally.

Source: Hempel