Water-based Coatings Application Report - Construction Machinery Section

In 2016, the domestic construction machinery industry achieved sales of 544,600 units for the 9 major product categories, with a year-on-year growth of 10.2%. Among them, the sales of excavators reached 62,899 units, with a year-on-year increase of 24.99%. This was the first growth in the construction machinery sales since it continued to decline in 2011.

The consumption of coatings for construction machinery was approximately 110,000 tons in 2016, with an annual sales volume of about 2.5 billion yuan and an VOCs emission of approximately 73,000 tons. Five domestic construction machinery enterprises, namely Sany, Zhonglian Heavy Industry, Xugong, Liu Gong, and Shan Gong, accounted for 34% of the market share, and there was no monopolistic situation where one company dominated.

Current situation of construction machinery coating

Currently, the levels of coating materials and coating processes for construction machinery in China vary. The competition in construction machinery has shifted from the original aspects of performance and reliability to the competition in appearance performance. To meet the demands of market competition, all manufacturers are actively improving and introducing advanced coating processes to enhance the overall decoration and protection performance of products. According to the characteristics of construction machinery components, they are mainly divided into thin plate coating, small component coating, complete machine coating, and structural component coating. Due to the large size and complex shape of structural components, only the solution of low-temperature baking paint can be adopted.

The current situation of coating for domestic construction machinery, in the following three aspects, is particularly notable:

1. Under the continuous pressure of environmental protection, construction machinery coating is facing new dilemmas of coating line renovation and re-selection of coatings.

2. Construction machinery enterprises have begun to pay attention to the improvement of coating processes. Some enterprises have adopted international advanced coating processes, and some have reached international leading levels.

3. Most domestic construction machinery enterprises have completed the transformation from decentralized coating to industrialized assembly line coating.

VOCs of construction machinery

In 2016, the sales volume of construction machinery was 545,000 units, with a coating consumption of approximately 110,000 tons and an VOCs emission of approximately 73,000 tons. Compared with the 94,000 tons of VOCs of 2 million TEU containers in our first report, the gap is not significant. However, the VOCs emission per unit product of construction machinery is 134 kg, which is much higher than 47 kg of a single container. Therefore, the VOCs treatment of construction machinery products is equally urgent. The control of VOCs mainly considers the selection of UV-cured coatings, powder coatings, and water-based coatings. The respective performance characteristics are as follows:

Case

The main suppliers of water-based coatings for construction machinery include Wispert, Chenyang, Daqiao, Jinhuili, etc. Among them, the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) that are currently testing water-based painting lines are Kunshan Sany and Shanghai Longkong.

Development Trends

In my opinion, the trend of construction machinery moving towards water-based coatings is inevitable.

The main reasons are as follows:

1. The comprehensive performance of water-based epoxy primers has basically reached the level of solvent-based epoxy primers.

2. The comprehensive performance of water-based polyurethane topcoats has basically reached the level of solvent-based polyurethane topcoats.

3. Construction machinery enterprises can meet the painting requirements of converting from oil-based to water-based coatings by making appropriate modifications to their existing painting equipment.