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M A T E R I A L S A F E T Y D A T A S H E E T
THE EPOXY BOOK
A SYSTEM THREE RESINS PUBLICATION
Most boatbuilders already know who we are.
That is because for the past two decades System
Three Resins' focus has been to provide the
highest quality epoxy products to boatbuilders
throughout the world. T<i>he Epoxy Book was
written to address the specific things that you
need to know to successfully complete a
boatbuilding project. However, non-
boatbuilders will also find a lot of useful
information in this book. For example, there's
an easy to understand epoxy chemistry lesson,
tips on measuring and mixing epoxy systems,
how to safely handle epoxy, and techniques of
epoxy use such as coating, fiberglassing, adding
fillers to epoxies and using epoxy resins as
structural adhesives. After reading this book
and trying out our specially formulated epoxy
resins and adhesives many different craftsmen
from woodworkers to kit airplane builders have
become regular purchasers of our products. We
welcome every new customer supporting them
with accurate product information and
straightforward technical advice on using our
products for their specific application needs. In
so doing, we are continually establishing
ourselves as a company that solves problems
for its customers. Several years ago we
discovered a need for our product formulation
and problem solving skills in the industrial
epoxy sector. Since then our industrial R&D
staff has helped many companies in industries
from appliance manufacturing to fishing rod
assembly. Today, a large part of our business is
done with these industrial accounts. As you
read through The Epoxy Catalog and The Epoxy
Book you will see the products and expertise
that we have developed while serving the needs
of boatbuilders and hobbyists. It is our hope
that you will also see a company that can
supply the epoxy and urethane coating needs of
your company as well. Your inquiries are
always welcome in our marketing department.
published by
System Three Resins, Inc
Seattle, Washington Copyright 2000 by System Three Resins, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of the contents of this book
may be reproduced by any method whatsoever without the
express written permission of the publisher.
The cartoons published herein are the copyrighted property
of Caroline Magerl, Queensland, Australia. All rights
reserved.
System Three, Quick Cure, and T-88 are registered
trademarks of System Three Resins, Inc.
Phase Two, Clear Coat, and SB-112 are trademarks of
System Three Resins, Inc.
The information contained in this book is believed to be true
and accurate. Because the application of the products
described in this book is beyond the control of System
Three Resins, Inc. No warranty of fitness or purpose is
made or implied. System Three Resins, Inc. Shall not be
liable for incidental or consequential damages as a result of
using the products or applications described herein. System
Three Resins, Inc.s only liability shall be the replacement
or refund of purchase price for defective materials. This
warranty attaches to and becomes part of the specific
warrant of gel coat blister repair on page 33 of this book. 1
SECTION I
INTRODUCTION
Time has a way of slipping away and before you know it five
years have passed. So it is with The Epoxy Book. Our last
major revision was in 1995. Since that time epoxy users have
become more sophisticated and expect more from the products
for which they spend their hard earned money.
No longer is it possible to use one epoxy
resin formulation for every conceivable
boat building and repair application.
Ten years ago, we had two major epoxy
resin formulations, System Three epoxy
for wooden boat building and repair and
Phase Two epoxy for composite cored
construction. Today we have twice this
number and have developed many
specialty formulations for specific
purposes.
While this might seem confusing to the
newcomer to epoxy resins, our goal was
to make life easier. Nowhere is this
more true than in our new line of epoxy
primers and paints. The biggest problem to plague
boatbuilders in the past few years has been the painting
problem. This problem arose because of changes in paint
formulations (banning certain metallic driers and requiring
lower volatile organic content), not because our original
System Three epoxy formulation was deficient. The painting
problem is now solved. We have developed new products to
overcome the problem.
The same thing is true of SB-112, our surf and sailboard
epoxy formulation. As this industry switched to the lighter
styrofoam blanks the need for an epoxy laminating resin was
necessary. The requirement here was for an
ultraviolet light stabilized, clear colorless
resin that polyester resins could bond to.
This industry was not about to accept current
boatbuilding epoxy resin systems because
they could meet none of these requirements.
Thus, we developed SB-112. Now we find
many people use SB-l12 for fiberglass boat
repair where the surface will be gel coated.
The major change in this edition is the
addition of the new products and the telling
of where and how they are used. We've also
expanded the section on fiberglass boat
repair by outlining a procedure for gel coat
blister repair, a major use of our products.
The section on wooden boat building and repair has been
enlarged. In short, there is something in here for all users of
our products.
Our responsibility is to provide quality products to the end
user. The information about the use of these products as
outlined in this book is merely a distillation of the knowledge 2
we've gained over the years. Some of this knowledge is
developed by us, some by others. You, the user, are the
captain of your ship even before you launch her. Your
responsibility is to make sure that all the products you use,
including ours, are properly used. We have no control over
how you use our products and can't guarantee that they will
work in your application exactly as you want them to. We
encourage the testing of new ideas on a piece of suitable scrap
prior to committing a whole project to the experiment.
You'll find that this book is organized into sections starting
with basic chemistry and safety regarding all epoxies,
swinging into System Three Resins products. Proper
measuring and mixing techniques are next. The basics are
followed by detailed sections on the various unit operations of
epoxy use. Then we get into wooden boat building and repair,
composite construction and fiberglass boat repair including
blister repair. There's a section on trouble shooting and we
finish with some useful tables and charts in the Appendix.
One point though. This is not a book about boat construction.
It is a book about epoxy resin use in boat construction. There
are a number of excellent books about boat construction
methods that use epoxy resin. Some mention our product,
some mention competitive epoxies. Use these books as an aid
to boat construction not epoxy resin selection.
In the interest of simplicity and readability we have used American units of measure in this book. For this use we apologize to
our friends and customers in the more civilized metric speaking countries. For you we have provided a conversion table in
Appendix G.
SECTION II
CHEMISTRY
Thoroughly knowing epoxy resin chemistry is not necessary
before building a boat, but having a rudimentary chemical
knowledge will help you complete your project more
effectively, avoiding any pitfalls or surprises which may arise
when using epoxy resins.
The resin that is the basis for all boatbuilding epoxies is the
diglycidol ether of bisphenyl A (DGEBA). Bisphenyl A is
produced by reacting phenol with acetone under suitable
conditions. The "A" stands for acetone, phenyl means phenol
groups and bis means two. Thus, bisphenyl A is the chemical
product made from chemically combining two phenols with
one acetone. Unreacted acetone and phenol are stripped from
the bisphenyl A which is then reacted with a material called
epichlorohydrin. This reaction sticks the two (di) glycidol
groups on ends of the bisphenyl A molecule. The resultant
product is the diglycidol ether of bisphenyl A, or the basic
epoxy resin. It is these glycidol groups that react with the
amine hydrogen atoms on hardeners to produce the cured
epoxy resin.
Basic epoxy resin is very viscous and unsuitable for use in
boatbuilding except as a thick glue for specialized
applications. At System Three Resins we purchase the
material in this basic form, then modify it using formulae
developed by us. The result is the various boatbuilding epoxy
resin systems we offer.
Hardeners used with room temperature cured epoxy resins are
most commonly polyamines. That is, they are organic
molecules containing two or mor