Construction

Acrylic materials based on methacrylate monomers have captured a good market share in the construction industry. They serve as binders for concrete admixtures, liquid water proofing compounds, industrial flooring and reactive road marking systems as well as concrete repair compounds. They are easy to process and cure rapidly even at low temperatures.

The systems used for this purpose consist of a resin component, which contains the multi-functional methacrylates as reactive thinners, and a filler component that includes peroxide for triggering polymerization. The systems' resin content varies between 5 and 35 wt%

Further applications for reactive resins with small amounts of multifunctional methacrylates as crosslinking agents are synthetic marble and casting compounds for bathroom fittings and kitchen sink.

Superplasticizer

Concrete admixtures are materials that are added to concrete during the mixing process in quantities not exceeding 5 wt% of cement. This way, concrete properties can be altered in the fresh and hardened state. Polycarboxylated ether polymer-based superplasticizers are well-known in the cement/concrete industry as special types of concrete admixtures for improving pumpability (rheology) and strength characteristics of fresh concrete. Moreover, they improve processability and facilitate the placing and compacting of concrete. They also allow for a lower water-to-cement ratio, thus improving concrete strength and durability. MERACRYL® GMAA is used for the application superplasticizers.

 

 

 

Adhesive & sealants

MERACRYL® methacrylate monomers can be found as a raw material in various adhesive and sealant formulations. Most popular are reactive adhesives based on methacrylates, though pressure-sensitive adhesives and sealants, e.g. for construction applications, also contain our MERACRYL® products.

Chemical anchoring

Chemical anchors are a combination of mechanical parts and adhesive substances that work together to bond old concrete to new concrete, or bolt items, such as rails or mechanical equipment, to concrete surfaces. Using methacrylate reactive resin compositions as binders for the art of chemical fastening is common practice. The reactive resin compositions in question are two-component systems, in which one component comprises the reactive resin and the other the curing agent. One or both components may include other, customary constituents such as fillers, accelerants, stabilizers, solvents (including comonomers as reactive solvents). Mixing the two components then leads to the formation of free radicals and the initiation of the reaction, which thermosets the resin. The resin component of systems used for this purpose contains a mixture of mono and multifunctional methacrylates as reactive thinners. They improve adhesion and show moderate polymerization shrinkage. The hydroxyfunctional methacrylates MERACRYL® HPMA and HEMA are the preferred choice for the monofunctional component.