US-12624234-B2 - Liquid or aerosol jet coating compositions for substrates, coated substrates and methods of coating

Abstract

Liquid jet or aerosol jet coating compositions, coated coil substrates, and methods of coating a coil substrate are disclosed. The method may include directing a liquid jet or aerosol jet coating composition to at least a portion of the coil substrate. The liquid jet or aerosol jet coating composition may include polymer particles and a liquid carrier including water in a major amount of the liquid carrier. The method may include providing conditions effective for the liquid jet or aerosol jet coating composition to form a hardened continuous adherent coating on at least a portion of the coil substrate.

Inventors

• Charles I. Skillman
• Boxin Tang
• Richard D. Joslin
• Joseph DeSousa
• Ted Robert Best
• Jade Y. MUNS

Assignees

• SWIMC LLC

Dates

Publication Date

20260512

Application Date

20220519

Claims (20)

1. 1 . A method of coating a coil metal substrate, the method comprising: directing a liquid jet or aerosol jet coating composition to at least a portion of the coil metal substrate, the liquid jet or aerosol jet coating composition comprising: polymer particles comprising a polymer having a number average molecular weight of at least 2000 Daltons, wherein the polymer particles have a particle size distribution having a D50 of less than 10 microns; and a liquid carrier comprising water in a major amount of the liquid carrier; and providing conditions effective for the liquid jet or aerosol jet coating composition to form a hardened continuous adherent weather-resistant coating on at least a portion of the coil metal substrate; wherein the coil metal substrate comprises aluminum, iron, copper, tin, steel, an alloy thereof, or a combination thereof; wherein the coil metal substrate has an average thickness of 300 μm or greater and 5 mm or less; and wherein the weather-resistant coating provides weather resistance when subjected to weathering testing over a period of 1000 hours.
2. 2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the polymer particles have a particle size distribution having a D50 of less than 5 microns.
3. 3 . The method of claim 1 wherein the polymer particles comprise a thermoplastic polymer.
4. 4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the directing comprises selectively applying the liquid jet or aerosol jet coating composition to at least a portion of the coil metal substrate to form a patterned coating.
5. 5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising providing multiple liquid jet or aerosol jet coating compositions, wherein at least two of the multiple liquid jet or aerosol jet coating compositions are different and wherein at least one coating composition is deposited on another different coating composition.
6. 6 . An article formed from a coated coil metal substrate having a surface at least partially coated with a weather-resistant coating prepared by the method of claim 1 .
7. 7 . The article of claim 6 , wherein the coated coil metal substrate is formed into a building panel, a metal roof panel, a wall panel, a garage door, office furniture, a home appliance, a heating or cooling panel, an automotive panel or part, or an architectural metal skin.
8. 8 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the different liquid or aerosol jet coating compositions are chemically different.
9. 9 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the different liquid or aerosol jet coating compositions are in different colors, and the method results in color-on-color printing.
10. 10 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the multiple liquid or aerosol jet coating compositions are deposited in a manner to form a textured surface.
11. 11 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising cryogenically cleaning the coil substrate prior to directing the liquid or aerosol jet coating compositions to at least a portion of the coil substrate.
12. 12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the coil substrate comprises steel, stainless steel, electrogalvanized steel, tin-free steel (TFS), tin-plated steel, electrolytic tin plate (ETP), or aluminum.
13. 13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein providing conditions effective for the liquid jet or aerosol jet coating compositions to form a hardened weather-resistant coating on at least a portion of the coil substrate comprises applying thermal energy, UV radiation, IR radiation, or electron beam radiation to the powder coating composition.
14. 14 . A coated coil metal substrate comprising a coil metal substrate having a surface at least partially coated with a weather-resistant coating prepared by the method of claim 1 .
15. 15 . The coated coil metal substrate of claim 14 , wherein the hardened adherent weather-resistant coating has an average thickness of at least 1 micron.
16. 16 . The coated coil metal substrate of claim 14 , wherein the substrate is a drawn and redrawn substrate.
17. 17 . The coated coil metal substrate of claim 14 , wherein the hardened adherent weather-resistant coating comprises two or more layers.
18. 18 . The substrate of claim 14 , wherein the polymer particles comprise a polyurethane or a vinyl polymer.
19. 19 . The substrate of claim 14 , wherein the coating does not include aromatic constituents.
20. 20 . The coated coil substrate of claim 15 , wherein the hardened adherent weather-resistant coating has an average total thickness of up to 100 microns.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS The present application is the § 371 U.S. National Stage of International Application No. PCT/US2022/030130, filed 19 May 2022, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 63/190,763, filed on May 19, 2021, which are incorporated herein by reference. BACKGROUND Coil and extrusion coatings are frequently used to coat substrates in an economical manner. Such coatings are known to have a number of useful properties such as abrasion resistance, flexibility, durability, corrosion resistance, weather resistance, resistance to cracking and the like. Coil and extrusion coatings are used to impart durable, colorful aesthetics in a wide range of applications, including metal building products. Extrusion coatings, also known as spray coatings, are applied by hand or electrostatically to preformed metal components such as curtain walls, store fronts, windows, louvers, and the like, while coil coatings are roll-coated onto planar metal sheets that are postformed into architectural components such as building panels, roofing, siding, and the like. A wide variety of liquid applied coating compositions have been used to provide hardened coatings on the surfaces of various products, including metal building products for example. The hardened coating should preferably have excellent adhesion to the substrate, resist staining and other coating defects such as “popping,” “blushing” and/or “blistering,” and resist degradation over long periods of time, even when exposed to harsh environments. In addition, the hardened coating should generally be capable of maintaining suitable film integrity during fabrication and be capable of withstanding the processing conditions to which the substrate may be subjected during use. Liquid based coatings largely satisfy the needs of the market today, but there are some notable disadvantages associated with their use. Liquid coatings contain large volumes of water and/or organic solvents that contribute to shipping costs. Then as the liquid coating composition is applied, a significant amount of energy must be expended, often in the form of burning fossil fuels, to remove the water or solvent during the coating hardening process. Once organic solvent is driven out of the hardening film, it either contributes to Volatile Organic Content (VOC) generation or it must be mitigated by large, energy-consuming, thermal oxidizers. Additionally, these processes can emit significant volumes of carbon dioxide. One alternative to conventional liquid coatings is the use of laminate coatings. In this process, a laminated or extruded plastic film is adhered to the metal via a heating step. The product required to produce laminate films is only compatible with a limited number of thermoplastic materials (e.g., the materials must have the tensile strength required to be stretched into thin films). There is also a limit on the extent to which such films can be stretched, restricting how thin the final coating can be applied on the substrate. There can also be a significant capital investment required to retrofit an existing production facility to accept laminated steel or aluminum. What is needed is an improved coating composition for rigid substrate applications, which overcomes the above disadvantages associated with conventional liquid, powder, and laminate packaging coating compositions. SUMMARY The present disclosure provides liquid jet or aerosol jet coating compositions, particularly coil substrate coating compositions, coated coil substrates, articles including or made from such coated coil substrates, and methods of coating a coil substrate, and methods of making an article, or a portion thereof. In one embodiment a substrate liquid jet or aerosol jet coating composition is provided that includes: polymer particles comprising a polymer having a number average molecular weight of at least 2000 Daltons, wherein the polymer particles have a particle size distribution having a D50 of less than 10 microns; and a liquid carrier comprising water in a major amount of the liquid carrier. Methods of coating such compositions on coil substrates to form coated coil substrates, as well as coated coil substrates, are also provided. Herein, “coil coating” compositions refer to coating compositions that are suitable for coating on rigid materials directly, or indirectly on a pre-treatment layer or a primer layer that is not derived from a free-standing film (i.e., a film formed before being applied to another substrate, such as by lamination) overlying a substrate. Thus, by way of example, a coating composition applied either to a paper layer overlying a coil substrate, or to a laminated plastic layer overlying a coil substrate, is not a coil coating composition as used herein. A “liquid or aerosol jet coating composition” refers to a composition that includes polymer particles in a water-based carrier, thereby forming a water-based polymer dispersion. The parti