Advanced Coatings Market Analysis, Part II
Polyurea is a revolutionary polyurea coating that allows companies to manufacture a wide range of protective coatings to protect their most valued assets. In the last several years, polyurea has exploded onto the commercial market as companies around the world scrambled to find new uses for this remarkable polyurea product. In fact, polyurea has grown into a polyurea industry worth billions of dollars in recent years. The polyurea companies are now able to service the aerospace, automotive, marine, agricultural, cosmetic, and medical industries.
The primary driving force behind the polyurea coating’s meteoric rise to popularity is the need for increasing protection, longevity, and functionality of industrial products. As the demand for such coatings increased, polyurea companies scrambled to find creative new ways to add this remarkable material into their products without sacrificing quality and the protective properties needed to keep these applications safe and functional. For example, some polyurea coating applications include anti-corrosion protection to combat against corrosion of sensitive equipment and structures. Others feature improved slip resistance and heat resistance for vehicles, while many more industries now see polyurea coating applications as a way to prevent oil leaks from reaching the ground through pumped fluids or as a way to make solvents and other chemical mixtures more resistant to damage.
One of the fastest growing polyurea coating markets has been in the automotive and marine industries. Vehicles have come to rely on coatings for their overall lifespan and durability. Because of this, it has become important for marine and auto body shops to find new ways to protect their surfaces so that they can continue to provide quality services and products to their customers. This need has spawned a huge polyurea coating market. Some polyurea coating manufacturers focus on specific industries such as aerospace, marine, automotive, and oilfield.
Polyurea coating technology was always slow to catch on. Some companies tried to tackle the problem by creating their own proprietary coatings using advanced mixing and production processes, but these systems were inefficient and often inaccurate. Others used only low-cost raw materials to develop their own unique coatings, but these materials were again sub-par when it came to high-quality performance. Finally, some polyurea coating companies made use of general Polyurea High-Performance Plastic (PULP) which is poor to work with, expensive, and generally useless for anything other than cosmetic or scientific experimentation. These flaws were quickly spotted and turned into roadblocks to developing more advanced polyurea coating systems that would be better for both research and application.
Enter the European polyurea industry led by Voelkel Industrial Products GmbH, a leader in polyurea product development. At its core, Voelkel includes many innovators who have individually worked to develop different polyurea coatings. By pooling resources together, they were able to address key challenges facing the industry, including poor surface availability of polyurea, slow manufacturing cycles, excessive pricing due to poor surface availability, and unreliable thermal expansion. By working together, these polyurea coating innovators were able to develop a production process that provides much better thermal expansion, improved physical properties, and reliability in applications ranging from automotive to aerospace.
Based on our analysis, we predict that the polyurea market will continue to grow at an accelerated pace, driven by high-growth industries such as Pharmaceutical, nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Energy, and Medical. With continued growth and development in this markets, we project that the demand for coatings will continue to outstrip the supply of polyureas. While the forecast period is relatively long, we believe that the overall economic attractiveness of polyurea coatings remains strong.