Finding a way to accurately measure the water and volatile content of high baked phenolic coatings has led to the development of a new ASTM International standard, D 7245, Test Method for Measuring Total Water and Volatiles in Liquid Coatings Which Produce Cure Water Upon Heating. The new standard was developed by Subcommittee D01.21 on Chemical Analysis of Paints and Paint Materials, part of ASTM International Committee D01 on Paint and Related Coatings, Materials and Applications.

Total water content and volatile content results obtained with D 7245 are allowable when using Practice D 3960, Practice for Determining Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) Content of Paints and Related Coatings to determine VOC. According to Steve Brunner, technical director, Heresite Protective Coatings, D 7245 allows for taking cure water (the water resulting from heat induced condensation reaction of coatings) into account as part of the total water measured, rather than treating it as a volatile organic compound.

Regulatory agencies as well as manufacturers of phenolic coatings will find ASTM D 7245 useful. In addition, the standard may prove useful in other areas. “Since it determines water and volatiles as one test, it is possible to use this method on other coating species as well, but testing will need to be done to determine applicability,” says Brunner.
 
ASTM International standards can be purchased through Customer Service (phone: 610/832-9585; https://www.astm.org/contact/) or at www.astm.org.

For further technical information, contact Steve Brunner, Heresite Protective Coatings, Manitowoc, Wis. (phone: 920/684-6646; steve@heresite.com). Committee D01 meets June 15-18 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. For membership or meeting information, contact Jeffrey Adkins, Technical Committee Operations, ASTM International (phone: 610/832-9738; jadkins@astm.org).

Release #7925